North Atlantic Treaty Organisation foreign ministers were discussing Tuesday what role their military alliance should play in Afghanistan next year, with plans for a troop drawdown on the back burner.
Advertisement
Taliban militants are still mounting attacks while the Islamic State (ISIS) is gaining a foothold in the country. In September, the rebels managed to temporarily overrun the northern provincial capital of Kunduz.
The foreign ministers of the NATO member-states, gathering at a two-day meeting in Brussels Dec. 1, will take a decision on the invitation of Montenegro to the NATO on December 2 morning, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.
“We believe Montenegro’s membership in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will contribute to Balkan and European security”, she said. “It would signal our continued commitment to the Western Balkans”, he said. “This will be approximately 12,000 troops”, Xinhua reported. It had initially been expected to wrap up at the end of 2016.
The United States’ NATO allies had been expected to follow suit and continue supporting the mission. As of October, NATO had over 13,100 troops in Afghanistan.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has been considering boosting its support for Afghan security forces, for instance by sharing intelligence or deploying trainers more in the country’s conflict areas, sources have told dpa.
Advertisement
Stoltenberg said North Atlantic Treaty Organisation had compelling reasons to complete its mission in Afghanistan with a stable government in place able to ensure security. “We made a decision several years ago to fund the Afghan national security forces until 2017 and now we are aiming at making a new decision at our Summit in Warsaw to fund Afghan national security forces until 2020”, said Stoltenberg.
