NATO defence ministers meet to dicuss Afghanistan

(11 Jun 2010) SHOTLIST AP TELEVISION 1. Wide exterior of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) headquarters in Brussels 2. Close up of NATO flag 3. Wide of Abdul Rahim Wardak, Minister of Defence of Afghanistan, entering NATO headquarters 4. Military officials arriving 5. Cutaway security and cameraman 6. Wide of Robert Gates, US Secretary of Defence, entering NATO headquarters 7. Wide of Liam Fox, British Secretary of State for Defence, entering NATO headquarters 8. Cutaway cameraman 9. SOUNDBITE (English) Liam Fox, British Secretary of State for Defence: "We do need to push our NATO partners to ensure that every country is doing everything it can to maximise its support of the training effort. We understand that some countries have difficulties getting combat troops to Afghanistan for political or even constitutional reasons, but there is no reason why any country should not be sending more trainers to Afghanistan to ensure that we can build up that critical mass of the Afghan national security forces, so that when we do leave Afghanistan, we leave behind a secure country and not a security vacuum." 10. Wide of Mehmet Vecdi Gonul, Turkish Minister of Defence, entering NATO headquarters NATO POOL 11. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen getting out of his car and entering NATO building STORYLINE NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) Defence ministers gathering on Friday for a second and final day of talks in Brussels, were expected to discuss progress made in Afghanistan as the North Atlantic Council met with non-ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) contributing nations. After tackling structural reform and budgetary issues within NATO on Thursday, ministerial talks on Friday were expected to mainly centre on the number of trainers sent by countries to Afghanistan, British Defence Minister Liam Fox said. "We understand that some countries have difficulties getting combat troops to Afghanistan for political or even constitutional reasons, but there is no reason why any country should not be sending more trainers to Afghanistan to ensure that we can build up that critical mass of the Afghan national security forces, so that when we do leave Afghanistan, we leave behind a secure country and not a security vacuum," Fox told reporters. NATO's chief said developments in Afghanistan are turning in favour of the alliance and that the handover of security responsibilities to local authorities could begin by year's end. Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told alliance defence ministers on Friday that the Afghan government and international authorities will agree on how to start handing over security, province by province. Fogh Rasmussen said he wants the transition to start, if possible, before the end of 2010. His optimism comes despite troubles with the military campaign. Top commander General Stanley McChrystal conceded on Thursday that a planned offensive in the city of Kandahar has been delayed because the process of gaining local support is taking longer than planned. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/933e2199c828604836d4e968278a8fc5 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork