Afghanistan, Iran, NATO focus of security meeting

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

MUNICH, Germany (AP) — A key security conference focused on NATO's commitment to Afghanistan opens Friday amid U.S. pressure on Germany and other key allies to deploy more troops. Concerns over Iran's nuclear defiance are also on the agenda.

Vice President Joe Biden will be on hand to meet the German and French leaders and to muster more support for NATO and U.S. efforts in Afghanistan even as the possibility of losing Manas Air Force base in Kyrgyzstan — a key supply point — looms in the background.

Moscow's delegation does not include Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, but Russia will be represented by Deputy Premier Sergei Ivanov. Russia has called on ex-Soviet republics to develop a force similar to NATO and opposes a U.S.-proposed missile shield in Eastern Europe.

Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and deeply versed in U.S. policy abroad, is expected to push allies at the conference for a greater share of the diplomatic, military and economic burdens confronting the new administration of President Barack Obama in Afghanistan and elsewhere.



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