MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd December, 2020) NATO will continue its train, advise and assist mission in Afghanistan, the alliance's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday, adding that the review of the peace process in the country is expected to be held at a defense ministerial meeting in February.
The statement came in light of Kabul's announcement that the Afghan government and the Taliban group had agreed on the rules and procedures governing the ongoing peace negotiations, adding that items on the agenda could now be discussed.
"We will continue our train, assist, and advise mission in Afghanistan ... Then will make an assessment of the conditions of the progress in the peace process by the defense ministerial meeting in February. And then we have to decide, and it's too early to say how the situation in the world will look like, how the situation Afghanistan and in the peace talks in Doha will be, and that's exactly why we will not make that decision today," Stoltenberg at a press conference following the two-day summit held by the military alliance.
The NATO contingent has been present in Afghanistan since 2003 as part of the UN-mandated international coalition known as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to help the Afghan national forces maintain security amid the terrorist threat, of which the lion's share has been coming from the Taliban. In 2015, the expired ISAF was replaced by the Resolute Support Mission with a mandate of non-combat mission to train, advise and assist the Afghan security forces and institutions.
