NATO Head: Afghan Exit to be Decided ‘Together’

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says that members of the organization maintaining forces in Afghanistan will decide together on when to withdraw from the country. Addressing reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday following a meeting with North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, Stoltenberg said: “We decided to go into Afghanistan together. We will make decisions on future adjustments together, and when the time is right, we will leave together.” He was referring to remarks made by US President Donald Trump on Twitter that US troops would be “home by Christmas.” Trump tweeted this on Wednesday just hours after his national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, said the goal was to reduce the US troop presence in the South Asian country to about 2,500 by early 2021. The United States currently maintains about 5,000 soldiers in Afghanistan. Said Stoltenberg: “We will make decisions based on the conditions on the ground because we think it is extremely important to continue to be committed to the future of Afghanistan because it is in our interest to preserve the long-term security of Afghanistan.”