* Karzai charge marred first visit by new US defense chief
* Afghanistan must recognise foreign sacrifices -Rasmussen
* Rasmussen: US missile defence plan change won’t hit Europe
By Adrian Croft
BRUSSELS, March 18 (Reuters) – The head of NATO said on
Monday it was “absolutely ridiculous” for Afghan President Hamid
Karzai to accuse the United States of colluding with the Taliban
and said Kabul should recognise sacrifices made by other
countries on Afghanistan’s behalf.
Karzai marred a debut visit to Afghanistan by the new U.S.
defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, on March 10 by accusing
Washington and the Taliban of colluding to convince Afghans that
foreign forces were needed beyond 2014, when NATO is set to wrap
up its combat mission and most foreign troops are to withdraw.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was
concerned about the increasingly harsh rhetoric between Karzai
and the United States, which contributes the largest contingent
to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
in Afghanistan.
“I reject the idea that was publicly launched by President
Karzai that … there is so-called collusion between NATO, ISAF,
the U.S. and the Taliban. It is an absolutely ridiculous idea,”
Rasmussen told a news conference, using unusually strong
language for the normally cautious NATO chief.
“We fully respect the sovereignty of Afghanistan but we
would also expect acknowledgement from the Afghan side that we
have … invested a lot in blood and treasure in helping
President Karzai’s country to move forward,” he said.
More than 3,000 foreign troops have been killed in
Afghanistan since the U.S.-led military intervention began in
2001. Some estimates put the cost to the United States alone of
the Afghan war in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
“Troops from 50 ISAF nations have sacrificed in order to
bring progress to Afghanistan,” Rasmussen said.
ASSERTIVE
Karzai has been increasingly assertive towards the United
States. Last month, he ordered U.S. special forces to leave
Wardak province after residents complained that they, and
Afghans working with them, were torturing and killing civilians,
an allegation strongly denied by the Americans.
Opposition politicians saw Karzai’s order as a political
move to bolster his party’s support base ahead of a presidential
election next year. Karzai is not allowed to stand again.
Rasmussen also said that a change in U.S. missile defence
plans would not reduce the European coverage of a planned U.S.
missile shield and had “nothing to do” with Russia, a vocal
critic of the European missile shield plan.
Hagel announced plans on Friday to bolster U.S. missile
defences in response to “irresponsible and reckless
provocations” by North Korea, which has threatened a pre-emptive
nuclear strike against the United States.
The Pentagon will add 14 new anti-missile interceptors in
Alaska. To free up funds for that, U.S. officials said they were
foregoing development of a new interceptor that would have been
deployed in eastern Europe.
The interceptor has been a focus of Russian concern that the
U.S. anti-missile shield in Europe would weaken its nuclear
deterrent.
Some news reports suggested the Pentagon’s move could help
resolve a long-running dispute between Russia and the United
States over the European anti-missile shield.
Rasmussen said the U.S. decision had “nothing to do with
Russia.” He insisted that “the Europeans will see no difference
in their missile defence and there will be exactly the same
coverage of NATO Europe as in the original plan”.
NATO’s invitation to Russia to cooperate on missile defence
still stands, Rasmussen said, adding that dates were under
consideration for him to make a possible visit to Moscow.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
