U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has expressed unhappiness with the NATO response in Afghanistan, where members of the 28-nation military alliance were reluctant to take on greater responsibility, reports say.
For the past several months, the U.S. has been urging NATO to increase allied troops the restive land-locked country, as well as increase their contribution in fighting war against terrorism in the country.
Gates said he is disappointed as NATO has not been able to send many troops to the troubled county and even the troops sent come along with a lot of caveats, which at times makes their presence ineffective.
"I've been disappointed with NATO's response to this ever since I got this job. NATO, as an alliance, if you exclude the United States, has almost two million men under arms," Gates said, wondering why they can't get more than 32,000 to Afghanistan has always been puzzling.
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May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.