EU’s top diplomat calls for rapid reaction force for military interventions in wake of Afghanistan chaos

European diplomats believe move would reduce bloc’s dependency on US troops

Senior European Union officials believe the time is right for the bloc to set up a rapid reaction military force, able to intervene in conflicts around the world, after the chaos that ensued in the Afghanistan airlift mission.

Figures including the EU’s most senior diplomat and its military chief have said the bloc and its various governments should be confident moving forward that they can disrupt a military crisis without relying on US forces.

Nations scrambling to get their citizens out of Kabul were left dependent on the US military to keep the airport running during airlifts, they added.

“Sometimes there are events that catalyse history, that create a breakthrough, and I think that Afghanistan is one of these cases,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters in Slovenia.

Members of the EU foreign affairs council have gathered there, at an estate near the city of Kranj, for an informal meeting to discuss the frenzied withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan after the Taliban’s hasty takeover of the country last month.

Mr Borrell has already called for, and is expected to discuss, the possibility of a European “first entry force” of 5,000 troops to replace the EU’s battlegroups, which were created in 2007 but have never been used due to disputes over funding and a reluctance to deploy.

“The need for more, stronger European defence is more evident than ever,” he told the media at the start of the two-day event in Slovenia. He added that the EU needed to establish units that were “more operational” than the battlegroups.

General Claudio Graziano, chairman of the EU military committee, backed the recommendation, saying the bloc must be “able to show the will of the Union to act as a global strategic partner”.

“The situation in Afghanistan, the Middle East and the Sahel show that now is the time to act, starting with the creation of a European rapid reaction force,” he said, also speaking to reporters.

“When if not now?” Gen Graziano added.

The idea of an EU rapid reaction force has been debated for years, but is now considered more likely because of the UK’s departure from the bloc. Britain, one of Europe’s main military powers, alongside France, had long been sceptical of collective defence policy.

Mr Borrell said he hoped a plan for the force would be drafted by the end of the year, though it is estimated a final deal on design and funding would not be delivered until next March – after France takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU from Slovenia in January.

Other figures weighing in on the debate include Slovenia’s defence minister, Matej Tonin, who said a rapid reaction force could comprise 5,000 to 20,000 troops and should not depend on a unanimous decision by the bloc’s 27 nations to be deployed.

“Maybe the solution is that we invent a mechanism where the classic majority will be enough and those who are willing will be able to go [ahead],” he said.

Meanwhile, Lithuania’s defence minister, Artis Pabriks, said no plan would amount to anything if there was a lack of political will to deploy troops.

It comes after EU Council president Charles Michel on Wednesday suggested the EU must take action to be better prepared for military evacuations of its citizens after Afghanistan.

“In my view, we do not need another such geopolitical event to grasp that the EU must strive for greater decision-making autonomy and greater capacity for action in the world,” he told the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia.

Additional reporting by Reuters