De Crem: the question of sending reinforcements to Afghanistan does not arise…

(BRUSSELS2) At the informal Göteborg, I was able to converse with the Belgian Defense Minister, Pieter de Crem, on several topical subjects, not only on the possible SSR mission in Somalia or the Airbus A400M (to be continued) but also from Afghanistan. Un
important point of view because the Belgian presidency is approaching (in the second half of 2 - with an informal meeting planned in Ghent) and it is important to know the point of a politician who intends to break with the policy of his predecessor, André Flahaut, by being closer to the Americans, or according to another version, by rebalancing the Belgian approach between NATO and the EU.

About the military reinforcements in Afghanistan, the Minister wants to be clear: “We have not received any new request. The important thing is to have a strategy for success, not only at the military level, the civilian aspect is also important (there are 210 men in Kandahar, on a PRT). With the military presence, we want to provide the opportunity to give the Afghan government the ability to build the state and expand the economic opportunities. My colleague in the government who deals with development has given the possibility of financing certain projects – we are tripling the contribution. This is a very substantial increase in participation. »

As for increasing the number of civilians on site, the Minister wants to be very cautious: “It is a government decision. This must be decided on a case by case basis. We need a synergy of all the structures present in Afghanistan. ».

On the other hand, he protests strongly against the temptation to see a failure: " I disagree that we haven't achieved a number of notable successes. Road construction, education, public health, law enforcement, a number of advances have been made. But there is still a lot of work to do. »