Albania rehabilitated Afghan schools, educates students

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, Oct 25 – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last week that he was encouraged by the NATO allies’ commitment to the 8-year-old war in Afghanistan even as the Obama administration mulls whether to order tens of thousands more U.S. troops to the fight.
At a NATO meeting of defense ministers where Albanian minister Arben Imami was also present, Gates said a number of allies indicated to him that they are thinking about or were moving toward increasing either their military or their civilian contributions or both.
“I found that very heartening,” Gates said.
“I think we lose sight of the fact that just as we have doubled the number of Americans in Afghanistan over the last 15 months or so, the reality is that the number of our partner nations, the number of their troops has almost doubled as well to almost 38,000 at this point,” he said. “So people really have been stepping up to this.”
Albania has 143 soldiers in Afghanistan.
At the meeting Imami said that Albania would help to rehabilitate eight schools in Afghanistan and also enroll for studies in its universities some 100 Afghans.
NATO nations also agreed to upgrade dozens of Soviet-era helicopters to help overcome a critical shortage of choppers in the war in Afghanistan. The agreement covers about 70 Mi-8, Mi-17 and Mi-171 medium-lift helicopters still serving in the air forces of NATO’s East European members.
A declaration of intent was signed by nine NATO Allies, including Albania, to contribute to a multi-national helicopter initiative designed to provide NATO and its operations with additional airlift capability through a multi-national cooperative programme run by the HIP Helicopter Task Force.
The Declaration of Intent was signed today by the Czech Republic, Albania, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Slovakia Spain, Turkey and the UK. This will provide the necessary political mandate to start mitigating critical utility helicopter shortfalls, particularly in the conduct of ISAF operations in Afghanistan.
Membership in this initiative is therefore not limited to transport helicopter owners but is open to any country willing to contribute with experience, know-how and/or capabilities.