VOA慢速英语:Afghanistan Tops Agenda at NATO Summit in Chicago

NATO leaders will meet Sunday and Monday in President Obama's hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Afghanistan will be the top issue at the meeting of the twenty-eight member North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 
周日与周一，北约领导人将在奥巴马家乡伊利诺伊州的芝加哥市会面。在北大西洋公约组织28个成员国的会议上，阿富汗将成为首要议题。

The United States last hosted NATO leaders in nineteen ninety-nine. That was two years before al-Qaida launched attacks on the United States. Those attacks led to the first use of the common defense provision of the North Atlantic Treaty of nineteen forty-nine.
美国上一次举办北约领导人会议是在1999年，这是基地组织袭击美国的两年前。那次袭击导致北大西洋公约组织1949年签订的共同防御条款第一次被启用。

As a result, for more than ten years now, the coalition has directed its attention on Afghanistan. The United States and NATO have about one hundred thirty thousand troops serving in the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF.
结果是该联盟开始了对阿富汗十余年的关注。美国和北约有大约有13万部队在国际安全援助部队中任职。

They plan to withdraw all of those troops by the end of twenty-fourteen. The Afghan government is supposed to lead the country's security beginning next year. President Obama talked about the change when he flew to Kabul this month to sign an agreement with the Afghan government.
他们计划在2014年年底前撤出所有部队。阿富汗政府应当于明年开始主导其国内的安全。奥巴马总统在本月初飞往喀布尔和阿富汗政府签署一项协议时谈到了这一改变。

BARACK OBAMA: "International troops will continue to train, advise and assist the Afghans and fight alongside them, when needed. But we will shift into a support role as Afghans step forward."
奥巴马：“国际部队将继续对阿富汗人提供培训、咨询和协助，并在需要的时候与他们并肩作战。但随着阿富汗政府的前进，我们将转变成一个支持者的角色。”

President Obama is to meet this Sunday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari also plans to attend the NATO summit. But President Obama's national security adviser, Tom Donilon, says there are no plans for a private meeting with Mr. Obama.
奥巴马总统将在这个星期天会见阿富汗总统卡尔扎伊。巴基斯坦总统Asif Ali Zardari也计划出席北约首脑会议。但奥巴马总统的国家安全顾问Tom Donilon表示，目前没有计划让他与奥巴马私人会面。

NATO has identified a support level of four billion dollars a year for Afghanistan. Stephen Flanagan of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies says the question is who will pay it.
北约已经确定每年为阿富汗提供40亿美元左右的支持。总部设在华盛顿的战略与国际问题研究中心的Stephen Flanagan称，问题是谁来支付？

STEPHEN FLANAGAN: "Most allies have not met their pledges to the existing NATO training mission in Afghanistan over the past four years, so their willingness to do so after the ISAF forces are withdrawn, when they are even more dependent on Afghan forces for their security, particularly given the incidents we have seen of late, that is a key question."
STEPHEN FLANAGAN：“多数盟国过去四年在阿富汗未能实现他们对当前北约训练任务的承诺。所以在国际安全援助部队撤出，安全局势更依赖于阿富汗部队，特别是考虑到我们看到随后发生的一些事件时，这将是一个关键问题。”
 
The United States has paid an increasing share of the costs of NATO operations. A year ago, Robert Gates, in his last major speech as defense secretary, criticized cuts in European defense spending. He warned of what he called "the very real possibility of collective military irrelevance" for the alliance.
美国在北约行动开支上支付的份额越来越大。一年前，Robert Gates在他最后一次作为国防部长的重要讲话中，批评了欧洲防务开支的削减。他警告说，该联盟的集体军事有可能陷入僵局。

The NATO summit will include France's new president. Francois Hollande was sworn in Tuesday as the first Socialist president in almost twenty years. In Chicago, Mr. Hollande will have to defend plans for an early French troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. He promised during his election campaign to remove troops by the end of this year. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy had announced plans to remove them by the end of twenty-thirteen.
北约首脑峰会与会者包括法国新总统。本周二，弗朗索瓦•奥朗作为近20年来首位社会党总统宣誓就职。在芝加哥，奥朗德先生将必须为法国提前从阿富汗撤军的计划做出辩护。在竞选期间他承诺今年年底前撤回所有部队。前总统尼古拉•萨尔科齐曾宣布曾宣布计划在2013年年底前撤回部队。

Charles Kupchan is a NATO expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. He says the leaders in Chicago will once again discuss how to make sure European powers carry their fair share of NATO's military work. Mr. Kupchan says the issue takes on a new importance for several reasons.
Charles Kupchan是北约理事会外交关系专家。他说，在芝加哥的各领导人将再次讨论如何确保欧洲国家在北约军事行动中承担他们的公平份额。Kupchan先生说，这一问题被赋予新的重要性有以下几个原因。

CHARLES KUPCHAN: "One is that the United States is pivoting out of Europe, putting more emphasis on the Middle East and East Asia -- our footprint in Europe is going down to about thirty thousand troops.  Number two, the U.S. is constrained fiscally and its own defense budget is going down. And that makes the U.S. more sensitive to what its partners in the NATO alliance are doing. And then you have the financial crisis in Europe"
CHARLES KUPCHAN：“第一，是美国正淡出欧洲，将更加重视中东和东亚。我们在欧洲的力量将下降到约3万部队。第二，美国在财政上被约束，自身国防预算将下降。这使得美国对北约的合作伙伴的动作更加敏感。而随后欧洲发生了金融危机。”

Experts say a good example of sharing responsibility was the intervention last year in the Libyan conflict. The Europeans took a leading military role. But they needed a lot of help.
专家称，一个分担责任的很好的例子是去年对利比亚冲突的干预。欧洲人在军事上发回主导作用，但他们需要很多的帮助。