RIGA, Latvia -- NATO leaders agreed yesterday to add troops to the 32,000 already in Afghanistan, but European countries such as France and Spain retained some of the restrictions that prevent their troops from taking a more active role in the fighting. President Bush's goals for the summit were to achieve the troop commitment, persuade other NATO members to pledge increased defense spending, gain a recognition that Afghanistan is a make-or-break fight for the future of NATO, and break down restrictions that keep some allies' troops out of the heaviest fighting in the south, where Canada, Britain, the Netherlands, the United States and Estonia bear the burden. He won progress on all of those goals, though in varying degrees.
The final communique makes it clear that Afghanistan is the defining battle for the alliance, but it simply encourages nations to boost defense spending. Although some European nations dropped caveats to deployment, they gave no hard agreement to push more of those troops to the south where the fighting is heaviest.