WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th February, 2021) The NATO mission in Afghanistan will be part of talks at the alliance's ministerial next week, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said during a news conference on Friday.
"There is no question that the NATO mission in Afghanistan will be a topic of discussion at the defense ministerial," Kirby said.
The information from the talks will help Defense Secretary Loyd Austin in advising President Joe Biden on the US approach in Afghanistan, he added.
The United States has not yet decided on its troop presence in Afghanistan amid ongoing negotiations with the Taliban movement and concerns over not meeting its commitments under the peace agreement the two sides reached last February.
According to US media reports, NATO officials predict that coalition forces could remain in Afghanistan past April, which would violate an agreement reached by the administration of former US President Donald Trump with Taliban negotiators.
On February 29, 2020, the United States and the Taliban movement signed a peace deal in Doha, Qatar, stipulating a gradual withdrawal of US troops as well as the beginning of intra-Afghan negotiations and prisoner exchanges. The talks were delayed multiple times until the Afghan government and the Taliban managed to agree on the prisoner exchange process.
The Afghan government and the Taliban launched peace talks in Doha in September of last year.
