The European Union"s Afghan police training mission has been boosted by about 40 more trainers, raising the total to 320, dpa cited Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt as saying today. However, that is still well short of the EU"s objective of deploying a total of 400 trainers in the war-torn country. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has repeatedly urged the West to send more police and army trainers to Afghanistan so as to allow local forces to take over responsibility for their own security. The EUPOL mission aims at "contributing to the establishment of sustainable and effective civilian policing arrangements under Afghan ownership and in accordance with international standards." To achieve this, it "monitors, mentors, advises and trains at the level of the Afghan Ministry of Interior, regions and provinces," the mission"s official website states. According to latest figures available Germany has sent the biggest contingent of trainers, followed by Britain, Denmark, Spain and Italy. For much of 2009, the number of trainers had been stuck at around 265, with EU member states struggling to satisfy competing demands from NATO and for other EU missions around the world. On Tuesday, for example, EU defence ministers agreed to work towards the launch of a new training mission in Somalia aimed at helping its armed forces fight insurgents. Under plans which EU ministers hope will be approved by the end of the year, the bloc would provide between 80 and 200 trainers to instruct up to 2,000 Somali troops.
