News Analysis: Why East European countries step up military presence in Afghanistan

Poland, Hungary, Macedonia, Croatia and Albania announced recently at almost the same time to step up their military presence in Afghanistan.

These Eastern European countries' decisions, as analysts in Beijing said, were not a coincidence but made due to the following reasons.

Firstly, the United States has pushed these countries to be more involved in the peace-keeping mission in Afghanistan.

Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the United States has intensified its political and economic infiltration in eastern Europe, and quite a few countries in the region have turned out to be staunch allies of Washington.

Each time when Washington spoke about cooperation with East European countries, it always emphasized these countries' contributions to the peace-keeping mission in Afghanistan. To these countries, Washington's encouragement undoubtedly cannot be taken lightly.

Secondly, these countries all wanted to show their allegiance to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). As its first- ever deployment beyond the North Atlantic and Europe, NATO's peace- keeping mission in Afghanistan was a step of the bloc in eastward expansion.

NATO leaders agreed in Turkey's Istanbul on June 28 to expand the alliance's peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan. These East European countries, either new or aspiring NATO members, would not like to miss the chance of making a strong performance.

Thirdly, they wanted to please such "old European" powers such as France and Germany. The Iraq war has widened the divide between the United States and the European Union. But most Eastern European countries sided with the United States and angered France and Germany.

On the other hand, they all knew how important it was for them to integrate with the European Union, though a close relationship with Washington would bring them some immediate benefits.

Washington and Europe have relatively less disagreement on the Afghanistan issue, and boosting military presence there by East European countries can please both.

Last but not the least, the peace-keeping mission in Afghanistan is unlikely to affect the political stability of these countries.

As security in Iraq has deteriorated with greater casualties for US-led coalition forces and more kidnappings of foreigners, sending extra troops to Iraq would arise strong domestic opposition and terrorist threat. But sending troops to Afghanistan involves little risk.

Source: Xinhua