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    October 05, 2011

NATO Defense Ministers Meet to Discuss Libya, Afghanistan

   VOA News

   NATO defense ministers are meeting Wednesday in Brussels to discuss the
   alliance's ongoing mission in Libya, the war in Afghanistan and efforts
   to acquire necessary resources as members face budget cuts.
   Ahead of the talks, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said NATO
   members must work more closely than ever, and warned it is wrong to
   assume the United States will make up for financial shortfalls. He said
   the Pentagon is facing $450 billion in cuts over the next 10 years, and
   could face additional cuts that would be "devastating" to security in
   the U.S. and abroad.
   Panetta said the fall of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is an
   example of why NATO matters, as alliance warplanes continue to carry
   out airstrikes against Gadhafi loyalists.
   NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called the mission a
   "great success," but both he and Panetta say it has exposed
   shortcomings in surveillance, intelligence and air-to-air refueling
   capabilities.
   Panetta says members must coordinate and pool their limited resources
   amid widespread budget cuts.
   The defense ministers will also address progress in Afghanistan, where
   troops in the U.S.-led NATO coalition began transferring security
   responsibility in some areas to Afghan forces in July. All combat
   troops are scheduled to leave the country by the end of 2014, and
   Rasmussen said Monday he expects the next phase of the transition to be
   announced soon.
   He said there has been "significant" progress in Afghanistan, and that
   NATO military officials say the insurgency there has been weakened.
   Panetta said Tuesday that General John Allen, the commander of U.S. and
   NATO forces in Afghanistan, lacks the trainers that are "critical" to
   this phase of the transition.
   The meeting is also expected to include discussion of Kosovo, where
   NATO peacekeepers clashed last week with ethnic Serbs at a
   Kosovo-Serbia border crossing.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.