I've just been speaking to Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox. Liam is at the Munich Security Conference - which styles itself as the "Davos of security policy". John McCain was due to be there but had to pull out at the last minute. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates is there with a message to Europe that Afghanistan is not Iraq. Only a few days ago he said this about NATO:
"I worry a great deal about the alliance evolving into a two-tiered alliance, in which you have some allies willing to fight and die to protect people's security, and others who are not," Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "It puts a cloud over the future of the alliance if this is to endure and perhaps get even worse." [Washington Post].
There are defence and foreign policy experts from across the world in Munich - with one notable exception... The British Government has failed to send any defence minister. Not Des Browne. Not even a junior minister. With serious questions needing to be answered about NATO's commitment to Afghanistan that really is inexcusable.
Liam Fox will be submitting a couple of reports from Munich over the next few days.
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