The Afghan army plans to almost double its troops in next three to four years to 134,000 soldiers in a bid to push back the gains made by the Taliban-led insurgency. "Your assistance will not only help Afghanistan better protect and care for their citizens, but will also reinforce your important role in ensuring peace and stability around the globe," Gates said.
The US official is expected to urge his Nato allies to send more troops and equipment at an informal meeting of the Alliance's defence ministers in Budapest on Thursday and Friday. Gates was attending the Southeast Europe Defence Ministerial (SEDM) Process, whose annual meeting was held on Wednesday in Orhid, was set up in 1998 to ease integration into Nato.
It has a dozen members - Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine and the US - and four observers - Georgia, Moldavia, Montenegro and Serbia.
The US aside, the permanent members of the SEDM have some 5,100 troops in Afghanistan, of which more than 2,000 are from Italy. Only Bosnia Herzegovina has no soldiers there. Of the 70,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan under joint Nato and US comand, 33,000 of the are US soldiers.