NATO leaders determined to help Afghanistan regain control

NATO leaders vowed Monday to stand by Afghanistan as it takes control of its own destiny, backing a plan to hand Afghans the lead for security in the war-torn country from mid-2013. In a Chicago summit declaration, US President
Barack Obama and his NATO military allies ratified an “irreversible” roadmap to “gradually and responsibly” withdraw 130,000 combat troops by the end of 2014.

But they also ordered military officers to begin planning a post-2014 mission to focus on training, advising and assisting Afghan troops to ensure the government can ward off a resilient Taliban insurgency.“As Afghans stand up,
they will not stand alone,” Obama told the gathering of more than 50 world leaders, focused on ending a decade of war that has left over 3,000 coalition soldiers and tens of thousands of Afghans dead.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, whose country provides the second biggest contingent after the United States, declared: “We will not desert them.” But while the Western alliance coalesced around an exit strategy, they struggled
to convince Pakistan to reopen a vital supply route into Afghanistan, although NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen voiced optimism it would happen “in the very near future.”  The 28 NATO leaders and their 22 partners in the war, as far afield as Australia, Georgia
and South Korea, issued a final statement saying Afghans will be in “lead for security nationwide” by mid-2013.

Though NATO troops will gradually shift focus to training and support, alliance officials stressed that foreign soldiers would still participate in combat operations when needed until late 2014. The two-day summit gave Obama a
platform to show a war-weary American public that he has global support for his plan to end the war ahead of a tough re-election campaign against Republican Mitt Romney in November. Chicago was under tight security as thousands of people protested during the
summit, with arrests and scenes of clashes between anti-war demonstrators and riot police on Sunday.

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Posted by Hamza Jahangir on May 22 2012. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry