It is absolutely outrageous that when we have the concept of shared security we don’t have properly shared risk – Liam Fox |
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The Defence Secretary, Des Browne, has just announced an increase in service personnel in Afghanistan. To date, there has been broad political support for the on-going Afghan campaign. There has been, however, criticism of those NATO ‘allies’ who appear to not be ‘stepping up to the plate’. The former Nato Secretary-General Lord Carrington has already accused France and Germany of “not pulling their weight” regards troop reinforcements for the challenging Helmand province in Southern Afghanistan. When is our government going to start insisting upon more European involvement?
Today, the Shadow Defence secretary, Liam Fox, has joined the chorus of disapproval of our allies’ failure to actively support the Helmand campaign. He was quoted as saying, “It cannot be acceptable that British taxpayers are funding a greater proportion of the cost and the British military are shouldering a greater part of the burden in the most dangerous part of the country.” Spot on. Since the election of Angela Merkel, German foreign policy has concentrated on improving relations with the world outside of the Franco-German alliance. Relations with the USA have subsequently improved. Germany is showing every sign of wanting to engage more with the world and it quite rightly feels it deserves a permanent seat on the Security Council. Membership of that council should be supported by Britain and the USA. In doing so, however, we should expect Germany to take on a greater share of policing the World’s trouble spots. It should start by sharing the responsibility for Helmand province in Southern Afghanistan.
