Australia's new Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon will deliver a blunt message to NATO countries meeting in Scotland on Friday, telling them that there will be no more Australian troops sent to Afghanistan until European countries increase their commitment.
Before the conference of defence ministers kicks off in Edinburgh this weekend, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been outlining his country's future strategy in Afghanistan.
NATO is not winning, but they are not losing either.
Australian aid workers have told ABC Radio's AM program that it is better to have the 40,000 allied troops in Afghanistan, but they are not enough to be the solution.
When Mr Fitzgibbon is in Edinburgh, his simple message will be that the new Labor Government could send more troops, but only if countries like Spain and Germany also send more troops to the south.
Also in preparation for the upcoming meeting, Mr Brown gave a speech in the British House of Commons.
"Let me make it clear at the outset, that as part of a coalition, we are winning the battle against the Taliban insurgency," Mr Brown said.
"We are isolating and eliminating the leadership of the Taliban. We are not negotiating with them."
Britain is not talking to the Taliban, but others are.
Now the UK accepts what is happening anyway - talks with mid-level Taliban leaders, not the most senior people, but those who could be persuaded it is worth their while to switch sides.
Afghanistan analyst Aisha Khan says the problem remains in how do you differentiate between the Taliban, the Pashtun ethnic group they dominate, simple militia leaders, and those only concerned with trafficking opium?
"Who are the intermediaries who are engaged with the tribal areas and will those intermediaries know who they are engaging with and how to engage with them?" she said.
"That's been the historical problem that the British have faced in the colonial times, and that I think we will see again current today, in the current context."
Switch tactics
Last year NATO said it would switch tactics - fewer aerial bombardments, more winning hearts and minds, and the destruction of the poppy crop.
London even voiced the hope 3,000 British troops could deploy without a shot being fired in anger.
But the last 12 months have been the most violent since the invasion, with 6,500 people being killed, including 40 British soldiers, and three Australian troops in the last few months.
Mr Brown hopes he can reconfigure a strategy in Afghanistan.
"First, more Afghan ownership, Afghan army, police and government building on NATO military achievements and taking over more responsibility for their own security," he said.
"Secondly, we support localisation and then reconciliation. Afghans building on the creation of a democratic constitution by developing and strengthening their institutions."
