NATO allies have decided to maintain troop levels in Afghanistan at around 12,000 next year and agreed to fund 3,50,000 Afghan troops.
the 28-member alliance had planned to slash troop levels by the end of 2015, but abandoned those plans over uncertainty about Afghanistan’s ability to fight Taliban militants who have taken over the northern city of Kunduz.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, said speaking at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, that allied forces’ main objective is to prevent Afghanistan from becoming “a safe haven for international terrorists.”
He said that it is also in our security interest to make sure that does not happen.
Excluding U.S. counter-terrorism forces, NATO will have about 12,000 troops in Afghanistan for most of next year, made up of about 7,000 U.S. forces and 5,000 from the rest of NATO and its partners such as non-NATO member Georgia.
