NATO hails Obama’s decision on slowing down pullout

KABUL in response to a request from his Afghan counterpart,

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a media briefing in Washington on Thursday: “I welcome Obama’s decision on keeping about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan.”

After a meeting with President Ashraf Ghani at the White House, Obama announced the military adjustment on Tuesday. He said the 9,800 US troops would remain in Afghanistan until the end of 2015.

The flexibility was demonstrative of the strong commitment of the US and NATO toward Afghanistan, Stoltenberg was quoted as saying by the news agency AFP.

Separately, he told the Voice of America the decision would have an impact on NATO’s Operation Resolute Support providing training and assistance for Afghan forces.

He added: “We went into Afghanistan together and we are going to leave Afghanistan together when it comes to the current military presence.”

PAN Monitor/mud

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