Decision on Afghan mission next year: NATO

KABUL (Pajhwok): NATO would take a decision on the future of its mission in Afghanistan early next year, says the secretary-general of the western alliance.

“What is clear now is that the US is going to reduce [troop levels in Afghanistan] but we are not going to leave,” Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday night.

Addressing the Halifax International Security Forum, he said NATO would take its decision early next year on whether to remain in or exit Afghanistan.

“We have to remember that more than half of the troops in Afghanistan now are non-US — they are European allies and also partner nations,” the secretary-general explained.

He said they were in Afghanistan to make sure the country never again emerged as a safe haven for international terrorists.

The alliance stoutly backed the current peace negotiations between the Afghan government and Taliban in Doha, he added.

The US-Taliban peace pact of February provided for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021, the NATO chief continued.

“My message is that we need to assess whether the conditions for leaving are met, together. We need to make these decisions together,” he maintained.

“As we have said many times: We went into Afghanistan together, we should make decisions on adjustments of a presence there together. When the time is right, we should leave together, but in a coordinated and orderly way.”

PAN Monitor/mud

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