NATO’s chief denied on Monday that the alliance was speeding up the withdrawal of combat troops from Afghanistan as he sought to clear up “confusion” over the pullout planned for the end of 2014.
Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen insisted that NATO was sticking to the timeline agreed at the Lisbon summit in November 2010 after recent comments from Western and Afghan officials indicated that 2013 was a new target.
“There is nothing new in all this but maybe it is necessary to clarify these timelines because sometimes they are mixed up in a way that creates some confusion,” Rasmussen told a news conference.
“We will stick ot the Lisbon roadmap and complete transition by the end of 2014,” he said.
Rasmussen explained that to complete the transition of security responsibility to Afghan forces nationwide by the end of 2014, control of the last provinces must be handed over in the middle or the second half of 2013.
“That’s why the year 2013 has suddently been mentioned,” he said.
“It’s not about accelerating the transition process, but it’s actually in order to stick to the Lisbon roadmap that we have to take 2013 into account,” he said.
It takes 12 to 18 months to complete the transition of provinces to Afghan forces, he noted. Afghan security forces are in the lead in provinces representing half the country’s population, including the capital Kabul.
Before meeting with NATO counterparts in February, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta had indicated that US troops would switch to a training role in 2013, but later stressed that they would continue combat through 2014.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai told Panetta last month that international forces should leave villages and that NATO should handover to Afghan forces in 2013.
Karzai’s office later appeared to step back, saying the demand was nothing new.
The way forward in Afghanistan, including the alliance’s role after 2014, will be discussed at a NATO summit in Chicago in May.
“We will not abandon Afghanistan,” Rasmussen said, adding that NATO will continue in a training and advisory role and would help fund the Afghan security forces after 2014.
