The spokesman's perspective:

Continuing our new series of video commentary, NATO Spokesman James Appathurai gives his personal perspective on recent articles discussing NATO. He invites you to write in with your own comments and opinions, which could be featured in the next installment.

E-mail comments to: press@hq.nato.int

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Sunday called on the Afghan government and fellow NATO countries to do more to support British troops in Helmand province.

In writing in the Sunday Telegraph, the foreign secretary warned that more must be done to purge police corruption and provide political support for the battle against the Taliban. He also called on EU countries to match British investment in Afghanistan and asked for other NATO nations to send more troops.

Opting out of ISAF seen as unaffordable luxury

The US Defence Secretary has sounded a dramatic warning to NATO allies about the impact of failing in Afghanistan, saying Europe's future security was at stake. Robert Gates said violence and terrorism could surge worldwide if NATO failed to stamp out the resurgent Taliban. He made a direct appeal to Europeans to support the military effort there.

Afghanistan could degenerate into a "failed state" if NATO were to pull out troops and abandon efforts to stabilise the country, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Monday.

Miliband, who visited Afghanistan last week with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said "immense challenges" remained there and it was vital that Britain meet its commitments and some other NATO members increased theirs.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission in Afghanistan is suffering a severe lack of in-theatre lift capacity, but no national solutions to address the shortfall are expected for at least another year, according to NATO officials.

This helicopter airlift deficit symbolises the alliance's difficulties encountered collectively generating forces quickly and in a coherent way, but is overshadowed by ISAF's pressing need for more soldiers to fight the Taliban in southern Afghanistan - the main topic of debate during a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Vilnius on 7-8 February.

President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia could aim nuclear missiles at Ukraine if its neighbor and former fraternal republic in the Soviet Union joins the NATO alliance and hosts elements of a missile defense system proposed by the Bush administration.

"It is horrible to say and even horrible to think that, in response to the deployment of such facilities in Ukrainian territory, which cannot theoretically be ruled out, Russia could target its missile systems at Ukraine," Putin said at a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who was visiting the Kremlin. "Imagine this just for a second."

Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend a NATO summit in April, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies on Tuesday.

The Bucharest meeting will be the first time a Russian leader has taken part in a NATO summit since Rome in 2002.

Australia wants a major reconsideration of Western strategy in Afghanistan and will not increase troop levels in the country until "underperforming" NATO countries shoulder their fair share of the burden, the Australian defense minister said Tuesday.

"I have to say the West isn't pursuing a coherent strategy in Afghanistan," the newly appointed defense minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, said by telephone Tuesday.

Vladimir Putin is to attend a Nato summit in Bucharest in April, the first time the -Russian president has accepted an invitation from the defence alliance since 2002, when ties with the west were more cordial.

The announcement comes as Moscow and Nato head for a collision over the -alliance's plans to deploy a missile defence shield near Russia and the Kremlin's unilateral withdrawal from the Conventional Forces in Europe pact, a key post-Soviet arms treaty.