MONITORING (SW) – The NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, has said the outcome of talks with the Taliban will create the basis for any decisions about the future presence of troops in Afghanistan.
He was speaking at the launch of his Annual Report for 2018 in Brussels on Thursday. He said NATO strongly supports the peace efforts. “We welcome the talks that are taking place between the United States and Taliban. This is closely coordinated and consulted with the NATO Allies. Ambassador Khalilzad, the chief negotiator, he has been at NATO several times”, he said.
The NATO Secretary General said the NATO and the U.S. forces have been in Afghanistan together for 17 years and will make decisions of future posture, presence in Afghanistan together.
“We are there to create the conditions for peace. We are in Afghanistan to send a clear message to Taliban that they will not win on the battlefield. They have to sit down at the negotiating table and I really believe that what we see now is a result of the efforts of NATO Allies over years, both our military presence, our train, assist and advise mission, but also our financial support to the Afghan army and security force, and that has created the conditions for the peace efforts we now see. So we will support them”.
Stoltenberg said depending on the outcome of these talks will create the basis for any decisions about the future presence. “But, it’s too early to . . . to pre-empt the outcome of the talks, simply because they haven’t been finalized. There’s still much to be done before we have a peace deal in place.”
He stressed NATO will be in Afghanistan, and will continue to provide support both the train, assist and advise mission and also continue to provide the financial support.
“So, we provide trainers and also financial support. We have actually made a new pledge to continue to provide support until 2024, we did that at the . . . at the NATO summit in July. But the troop levels that, of course, depends on the outcome on . . . of the negotiations, but we are extremely focused on that we have to make sure that we don’t . . . that, that we maintain the gains we have made. We are in Afghanistan to prevent Afghanistan for ever again becoming a safe haven for international terrorists. And, of course, that’s one of the key issues which are now negotiated and addressed in the talks with . . . with Taliban. So whether we will . . . the future force level of NATO troops is very much depends on, of course, the outcome of those talks”.
ENDS
