NATO was quick to offer support to President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan plan this morning. Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen released a statement on NATO’s website earlier today calling Obama’s plan a “broader political strategy for success,” and adding:

“But this is not a US mission alone: America’s Allies in NATO have shared the risks, costs and burdens of this mission from the beginning. As the US increases its commitment, I am confident that the other Allies, as well as our Partners in the mission, will also make a substantial increase in their contribution. Taken together, the new force contributions from across the Alliance, as well as the new approach agreed by all the ISAF countries, will help create a new momentum in the mission in 2010.”

In a statement released on NATO’s security forces website, General Stanley McChrystal, US commander in Afghanistan, said that the President had offered him a “clear military mission and the resources to accomplish our task”. McChrystal continued, “The clarity, commitment and resolve outlined in the President’s address are critical steps toward bringing security to Afghanistan and eliminating terrorist safe havens that threaten regional and global security.”

In a confidential report leaked to the press in September, McChrystal wrote that without more soldiers, the war in Afghanistan would fail; he later requested 40,000 more American troops.

In the UK, Foreign Secretary David Miliband called Obama’s speech “very significant” in developing a counterinsurgency strategy for the region, according to the Telegraph, while UK military commanders were “delighted” with the announcement. On Monday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed that he would be sending an additional 500 British troops into the region.