NATO announces 3,000 extra troops for Afghanistan

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA

An extra 3,000 NATO troops will be deployed to Afghanistan in the “coming months”, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday.

The additional personnel, most of whom will be supplied by the U.S., would take the NATO contingent to 16,000.

“Twenty-seven other nations have also committed to increase troop numbers in the coming months,” Stoltenberg told a news conference in Brussels.

“So, the size of our Resolute Support Mission will increase, from around 13,000 to around 16,000 troops.”

NATO’s Resolute Support Mission, which replaced the International Security Assistance Force combat mission in 2015, focuses on training, advising and assisting Afghan security forces.

Stoltenberg welcomed the new commitment and said NATO would continue to support Afghan security forces financially until at least 2020.

More than 130,000 NATO troops were based in Afghanistan in 2011, the peak year for deployment.

Over the last year the Taliban has made significant territorial gains and attacks have reached their highest level since 2007.

Speaking following a meeting with Afghan Acting Defense Minister Tariq Shah Bahrami, Stoltenberg said NATO would “continue to support a peace and reconciliation process that is Afghan-led and Afghan-owned.

“We welcome the Kabul process initiative launched by President [Ashraf] Ghani earlier this year. We urge the government to do all it can to ensure the conditions for peace on the ground.”

He called on Pakistan to play a “key role” in defeating the Taliban because “peace and stability in Afghanistan means peace and stability in the whole region.”

The United Arab Emirates and Qatar were seeking to contribute to the mission, Stoltenberg added.