A new European Union military force advocated by senior EU officials after the fall of Afghanistan would weaken the transatlantic alliance and “divide Europe”, Nato’s secretary general has warned.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Jens Stoltenberg said that while he welcomed “more European efforts on defence” a planned EU rapid reaction force risked overstretching the “scarce resources” of Nato allies.
The former Norwegian prime minister, who has been taking part in G7 leaders’ discussions on Afghanistan, also claimed that failures by the country’s former political and military leaders were a key factor in the “sudden collapse” of Ashraf Ghani’s regime, saying that there were “no clear plans to defend the country” and Afghan soldiers “didn’t get paid... didn’t get ammunition”.
Separately, Mr Stoltenberg said “many questions” should be asked about whether Pakistan or its military had aided the Taliban’s efforts, as he said that the “special relationship” between the country and the Taliban “of course... is part of the story”.
His intervention comes after senior EU figures said that the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan showed that the EU needed to be able to act independently from the US.
A new poll by Redfield & Wilton Strategies found that 62 per cent of people believed that the international reputation of the US had been damaged by its handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Some 41 per cent said the same of the UK, while only a fifth disagreed.
Nato was at the centre of efforts to evacuate Westerners and Afghans who had helped foreign armed forces, as the Taliban took over Afghanistan last month.
Last week, as EU defence ministers gathered in Slovenia, senior officials from the bloc said that the chaotic withdrawal of Western forces showed that the EU needed to be able to intervene militarily in a crisis without rely
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