US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has urged the international community – especially the European Union - to give more aid to Afghanistan, stressing that Europeans in particular should do more to establish a sustainable and effective government in the country. Speaking to delegates at a meeting on Asian security in Singapore, Gates said that three successive NATO summits had declared Afghanistan to be of “highest priority” for the alliance.

However, there was a gap between NATO rhetoric and “the capabilities that our allies are prepared to put forward,” Gates said. “The need is greater than the commitments that have been made,” he added. Gates warned that failure in a place like Afghanistan would have “international reverberations.” He added that, “The challenge in Afghanistan is so complex, and so un- traditional, that it can only be met by all of us working in concert.” His remarks came about the same time that Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy went to the Afghan capital of  Kabul to reiterate his country’s “long-term” commitment to Afghanistan’s peace and reconstruction. “Our commitment and partnership with Afghanistan is a long-standing one,” Rompuy told reporters at a press conference after meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai in his fortified presidential palace.

The Belgian leader said his country was doubling its civilian aid to the war-torn country to 12 million Euros (USD 17 million) annually for the years 2009 and 2010, while more Belgian instructors would be sent to Afghanistan to help train soldiers and civil servants.