NATO vows continued engagement in Afghanistan amid US troop pullout plan

"Our engagement is important to ensure that Afghanistan never again becomes a safe haven for international terrorists who could threaten us at home," NATO’s spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said on Friday as quoted in an AFP report.

She declined, however, to comment on the recently announced plan by US President Donald Trump to withdraw a considerable number of the 14,000 American military service members deployed in Afghanistan.

Lungescu underlined that NATO foreign ministers met as recently as this month to express "steadfast commitment to ensuring long-term security and stability in Afghanistan."

The report also quoted an unnamed US official as saying that a "decision has been made. There will be a significant withdrawal."
This while US-based news outlets have also reported that more than 7,000 American troops are due to return home from Afghanistan.

Responding to press inquiries about such reports, Lungescu only stated: "We have seen the reports. For any comments, I refer you to the US authorities."

Moreover, the NATO spokeswoman pointed to Washington's key role in the alliance and specifically hailed US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who dramatically announced his resignation on Thursday. "Secretary Mattis has made a key contribution to keeping NATO strong and ready to deal with the significant security challenges we face."

"He is widely respected as a soldier and a diplomat... We are grateful for the iron-clad commitment of the United States to NATO,” Lungescu added. “US leadership keeps our transatlantic alliance strong."

According to the report, a contingent of the US forces deployed to Afghanistan are part of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission, purportedly engaged in training and advising local Afghan troops battling Taliban militants.

An unspecific number of American combat forces in Afghanistan, however, are part of a US-led so-called “counter-terrorism mission,” and it is not clear from initial press reports which of the troops will be the first to be withdrawn from the terror-ravaged nation.

Trump has often been at odds with fellow NATO leaders, accusing a number of European allies, such as Germany and France, of not contributing sufficiently to the alliance in terms of military spending.

A massive US-led military force invaded Afghanistan in 2001 in a declared “war on terror,” initially aimed at toppling the ruling Taliban regime in the country and uprooting the presence of allied al-Qaeda terrorist group.

However, nearly 18 years later, Taliban and Daesh terrorists continue to plague Afghanistan. Numerous attempts by US emissaries have been made to engage Taliban in peace talks.

More than 2,400 American troops and military contractors have died in Afghanistan since 2001, with 13 troops killed this year.
Since the end of 2014, when the Pentagon declared an end to combat operations in the country, more than 25,000 Afghan soldiers and police officers have been killed.