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Defence Secretary Liam Fox has criticised Germany and Italy for 'failing to deliver' funds to provide extra helicopters in Afghanistan.
Fox, giving evidence on the Anglo-French defence cooperation treaty to a House of Lords committee, said that the Multinational Helicopter Initiative, launched in October 2009, had been underfunded by some of the richest nations involved.
"The helicopter initiative launched by the previous British government needed around €60m to deliver 10 helicopters to Afghanistan," said Fox. "It has only generated €28m and delivered three helicopters.
"Within that the UK has provided €8.6m, France is the second largest contributor at €5m. Some of Europe's richest nations have failed to deliver in this project - in particular, Germany and Italy - and most of the other contributions have come from non-EU CDSP (Common Defence and Security Policy) countries: Norway, Denmark, Japan.
"What it does I think illustrate is that again it's the same countries that are doing the deployment and doing the funding and the same countries who are missing from the equation," he said.
http://www.defencemanagement.com/news_story.asp?id=15393
Fox, giving evidence on the Anglo-French defence cooperation treaty to a House of Lords committee, said that the Multinational Helicopter Initiative, launched in October 2009, had been underfunded by some of the richest nations involved.
"The helicopter initiative launched by the previous British government needed around €60m to deliver 10 helicopters to Afghanistan," said Fox. "It has only generated €28m and delivered three helicopters.
"Within that the UK has provided €8.6m, France is the second largest contributor at €5m. Some of Europe's richest nations have failed to deliver in this project - in particular, Germany and Italy - and most of the other contributions have come from non-EU CDSP (Common Defence and Security Policy) countries: Norway, Denmark, Japan.
"What it does I think illustrate is that again it's the same countries that are doing the deployment and doing the funding and the same countries who are missing from the equation," he said.
http://www.defencemanagement.com/news_story.asp?id=15393