NATO stress political solution of Afghan conundrum

KABUL the group could not win on the battlefield.

“At the end of the day, there is no military solution to the problems in Afghanistan, but to send a message to Taliban that they will not win on the battlefield, they have to sit down and negotiate, we need the military presence to send that clear message to the Taliban,” he said while addressing reporters here.

Stoltenberg linked the NATO forces presence in Afghanistan to the creation of conditions for a peaceful, negotiated solution. 

The secretary general said that handing over the security of Afghanistan to Afghans was the right idea and has been working.

He said NATO would continue to provide support to Afghans, train their Special Operation forces and build their air forces. 

Answering to a question on increasing the size of NATO train and advise mission, Stoltenberg said: “I will say that the plan is working, meaning that we have been able to hand over responsibility for security in Afghanistan to the Afghans themselves.  And that’s a huge difference between what we did before, because then we were in Afghanistan with a big combat mission with more than 100,000 troops.”

 “I am not saying that the situation in Afghanistan is easy.  There is violence, there is terrorism, there is uncertainty, there are many challenges, and sometimes also a lot of disappointments.  But at least we have seen that we have, together with the Afghans, been able to build a professional, dedicated force of Afghan police and soldiers, who are able to respond when Taliban or terrorist groups conduct attacks.”

nh 

Visits: 1