November 17th. NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg warned on Tuesday (17th) that NATO and other parties may pay a heavy price for the premature withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. Earlier, US officials said that Trump is expected to withdraw a large number of US troops from Afghanistan, a conflict-ridden country in the next few weeks.
According to news from the Associated Press on the 17th, 12,000 soldiers from dozens of NATO countries are currently in Afghanistan to help the country train its national security forces and provide advice.
The U.S. military often accounts for about half of this number, and an alliance of 30 countries relies heavily on the U.S. armed forces to provide transportation, logistics, and other support. As a result, the large-scale withdrawal of US troops may make NATO bear a heavy price.
Stoltenberg said in a statement: “We are now facing a difficult decision. We have been stationed in Afghanistan for nearly 20 years, and no NATO allies are willing to stay longer than necessary. But at the same time, it is too early.
Or the cost of evacuation in an uncoordinated manner may be high.” Stoltenberg said the country still “is in danger of becoming a platform for international terrorists to plan and organize attacks on our homeland again. And the’Islamic State’ ‘(ISIS) can rebuild in Afghanistan the power lost in Syria and Iraq”.
Earlier, Trump fired a number of senior Pentagon officials, and at the same time appointed a person who opposed the war in Afghanistan to a senior position. He is currently preparing for a large-scale withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.
The expected plan is to cut the number of US troops in Afghanistan by nearly half before January 15. U.S. officials said that the military leaders have been notified of the planned withdrawal plan over the weekend, and an executive order is being formulated but has not yet been delivered to the commander.
NATO was responsible for Afghanistan’s international security work in 2003. Two years later, an alliance led by the United States expelled the Taliban because the latter had provided asylum to the former leader of Al-Qaida.
In 2014, the U.S. military began to train and advise the Afghan security forces, but has gradually withdrawn in accordance with the peace agreement reached by the United States.
