Gates Says Afghan Vote Will Not Slow Strategy

TOKYO — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Tuesday that prolonged challenges to the political legitimacy of the government in Afghanistan should not halt the administration’s efforts to decide on a new strategy nor would it slow allied military operations there.

Speaking before meetings with senior Japanese officials, Mr. Gates warned that the anticipated runoff election and questions of installing a new, credible government in Kabul would be a lengthy process. During that time, administration discussions on strategy — and whether to send more troops — would not go into suspended animation, he said.

In recent days, other administration officials indicated that decisions on Afghanistan might not be made until runoff elections were complete and a new government was in place.

“We are not going to just sit on our hands waiting for the outcome of this election and for the emergence of a government in Kabul,” Mr. Gates said. “We have operations under way and we will continue to conduct those operations.”

Mr. Gates, in assessing the impact on administration policy of strong charges of election fraud by supporters of President Hamid Karzai, noted that “whatever emerges in Kabul is going to be an evolutionary process.”

“It is not going to be complicated one day and simple the next,” he said. “I believe the president will have to make his decisions in the context of that evolutionary process.”

Mr. Gates’ comments were, at a minimum, a different interpretation of the way forward than those offered by a senior administration official in recent days. On Sunday, Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff, said in television interviews that the administration must first ensure it has a “credible” partner in the Afghan government before making a decision to send more troops.

Mr. Gates was in Tokyo as the first member of Mr. Obama’s Cabinet to visit Japan since elections here ended almost a half-century of rule by the conservative, pro-American Liberal Democratic Party and brought into power the slightly left-of-center Democratic Party.

Japan’s future contributions to the Afghanistan mission were to be on the agenda, but Mr. Gates said he would be making no specific request for either money or troops. Since the invasion of Afghanistan following the terrorist attacks in the United States of Sept. 11, 2001, Japan has pledged $2 billion for civilian reconstruction and security training, one of the largest contributors. About $1.8 billion has been distributed.

By comparison, however, the United States has budgeted $68 billion for its military and civilian effort in Afghanistan in the current fiscal year.

“The alliance between our countries remains a cornerstone of U.S. security policy in Asia,” Mr. Gates said in his first official comments after arriving. Mr. Obama is scheduled to visit Japan next month.