Russia to NATO: please don’t leave Afghanistan
Afghan president Hamid Karzai has often sounded like he’d prefer to see NATO gone (though he almost certainly wouldn’t), and yesterday’s demand that the alliance sequester its troops on major bases was just the most dramatic expression of that high-level skepticism. Meanwhile, most NATO members would be pleased to see the end of an expensive ...
Afghan president Hamid Karzai has often sounded like he'd prefer to see NATO gone (though he almost certainly wouldn't), and yesterday's demand that the alliance sequester its troops on major bases was just the most dramatic expression of that high-level skepticism. Meanwhile, most NATO members would be pleased to see the end of an expensive and increasingly controversial mission. So who wouldn't be happy if NATO rushed for the exits? Russia, for one:
Afghan president Hamid Karzai has often sounded like he’d prefer to see NATO gone (though he almost certainly wouldn’t), and yesterday’s demand that the alliance sequester its troops on major bases was just the most dramatic expression of that high-level skepticism. Meanwhile, most NATO members would be pleased to see the end of an expensive and increasingly controversial mission. So who wouldn’t be happy if NATO rushed for the exits? Russia, for one:
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, while voicing support for granting NATO access to the airfield, said Wednesday that the Kremlin opposed a swift exit of troops from Afghanistan because of concerns about security, including drug trafficking.
“This coalition should ensure the ability of the people of Afghanistan to defend their country and maintain an acceptable level of security before leaving there,” he told Parliament. He also called on American and NATO forces to destroy poppy crops in Afghanistan to fight the opium trafficking that has led to rising drug use and H.I.V. rates in Russia.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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