NATO: We won't abandon Afghanistan

[November 20, 2010]  LISBON, Portugal (AP) -- NATO will start reducing troop levels in Afghanistan next year and hand over control of security to the Afghans in 2014 but will not abandon the country after that and let it slip back into chaos, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Saturday.

Rasmussen, President Barack Obama, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and leaders of the 28-nation alliance were meeting behind closed doors to discuss the alliance's exit strategy from Afghanistan on the second day of Nato's annual summit. They were also deciding how NATO will give advice, training and logistics help to Afghanistan's military over the long term.

"The direction starting today is clear, toward Afghan leadership and Afghan ownership (of the war)," Rasmussen said in his opening remarks.

NATO officials stressed that the alliance will maintain a military presence in Afghanistan long after it begins withdrawing troops.

"We will agree here today on a long-term partnership between NATO and Afghanistan to endure beyond the end of our combat mission," Fogh Rasmussen said. "If the enemies of Afghanistan have the idea that they can wait it out until we leave, they have the wrong idea. We will stay as long as it takes to finish our job."

Ivo Daalder, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, said the 2014 goal and the end of NATO's combat role in Afghanistan beyond that date "are not one and the same." But many NATO nations have insisted they will remove all their troops by 2014, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague reiterated said his country will end its combat role in Afghanistan by 2015.

"Make no mistake about it, that is an absolute commitment and deadline for us," the British news agency Press Association quoted him as saying.

He added: "This remains a phenomenal challenge. There is a huge amount of work to do in Afghanistan, and I wouldn't want anyone to think we can relax in any way about Afghanistan."

The end date to hand Afghans control of security is three years beyond the time that Obama has said he will start withdrawing U.S. troops, and the challenge is to avoid a rush to the exits as public opinion turns more sharply against the war and Karzai pushes for greater Afghan control.

Karzai's office in Kabul said the president highlighted the importance of reducing civilian casualties, eliminating private security companies and issues surrounding the detention of prisoners.

He called on the NATO leaders to support an accelerated process for reconciling with the Taliban and win the trust of countries in the region so that they can foster the peace process.

Karzai's office said the president also renewed his pledge to fight corruption and asked that there be a meeting on transition in November 2011 in Bonn, Germany.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, was expected to make a closed-door presentation emphasizing that stepped-up military operations this year, with the addition of thousands more U.S. combat troops, have made strides toward weakening the Taliban and eventually creating the conditions for peace negotiations.

But he also is believed to be concerned that the transition not turn into a departure before Afghanistan is stable.

Despite the optimistic statements about progress in the war, the Taliban have shown no sign of weakening under the intense military pressure. Allied deaths have reached record levels this year, and the guerrillas have expanded their activities into hitherto safe regions in the north and west of the country.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official said Saturday the U.S. is seeking to expand the areas where American missiles can target Taliban and al-Qaida operatives but that Pakistan has refused the request because of domestic opposition to the strikes.

The U.S. is increasingly relying on the missile strikes by remote-controlled drones flying over Pakistani territory to find and kill Islamist extremists that have free rein in the lawless areas along the border, where they plan attacks against American and NATO troops in Afghanistan

Another major event is a meeting of NATO's 28 leaders with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

NATO and Moscow are expected to sign agreements to expand the alliance's supply routes to Afghanistan through Russia, and set up a new training program in Russia for counter-narcotics agents from Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries. They also are expected to agree on a program to provide training to Afghan helicopter crews.

Obama won NATO support to build a missile shield over Europe, an ambitious commitment to protect against Iranian attack while demonstrating the alliance's continuing relevance.

Two key unanswered questions about the missile shield -- Will it work and can the Europeans afford it? -- were put aside for the present in the interest of celebrating the agreement as a boost for NATO solidarity.

[Associated Press; By SLOBODAN LEKIC and ALAN CLENDENNING]

Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Robert Burns and Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this report.

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