Clinton pushes NATO allies for united strategy on Afghanistan

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for a "fresh start" with Russia on her first visit to Europe, affirming Vice President Joe Biden's recent call to push a US "reset button" with Moscow.

America's top diplomat met NATO ministers ahead of a key April summit – one expected to solidify what is being called a more "realistic" alliance strategy on the troubled mission in Afghanistan.

Mrs. Clinton, after trips to Asia and the Middle East, is in Brussels to take the pulse of "the Western family," as a French analyst put it, and to meet allies.

Atop the list of initiatives is Russia. Clinton emphasized a White House desire to rebuild relations with Moscow after the August war in Georgia, amid a US cooling on Bush-era projects like European missile defense and rapid NATO enlargement along Russia's border. She meets Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ivanov in Geneva Friday to restart nuclear arms control talks, and discuss Afghanistan.

Clinton said, however, that "[we] should continue to open NATO's door to European countries such as Georgia and Ukraine and help them meet NATO standards."

A "fresh start" with Russia moves the US closer to the pragmatic position of Europe's heavyweight, Germany, where the question – as described by Ulrike Guérot, of the European Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin – is: "What is the place of Russia in Europe? Which is tied to the question, 'Which way is Russia going?'"

Allies advocated strengthening a NATO-Russia council, which NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters is "not a fair weather body" – and should be used to discuss "everything," including Russian troops considered to be illegally deployed in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

But Afghanistan was the hot underlying issue in Brussels. In Pakistan's Swat Valley, recently ceded to Taliban forces by Pakistan, the Taliban are already appointing civil servants, acting with impunity against civilians, and cranking up heavy new propaganda machinery via FM radio. The secretary began consulting on a nearly finished US strategy for the NATO Afghan deployment.

Europeans, despite enthusiasm for Barack Obama, are skeptical about more NATO troops for Afghanistan, especially lacking a clear strategy. Clinton's visit comes in tandem with Mr. Biden, former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who visits NATO next Tuesday on that Afghan strategy.

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