Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Kabul (BNA) Afghan officials said, ‘Besides talks about current situation of the country in Brussels, the Afghan delegation asked NATO for long-term continued cooperation to Afghanistan’.
In his recent meeting with NATO Secretary General and other officials of the organization in Brussels, Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Presidential security advisor said, ‘NATO must be beside Afghanistan beyond 2016’.
He stressed that the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) are capable enough to fight against terrorism but he also expressed his concern on continued activities of the terrorism groups in the country’.
Furthermore, he added that success against terrorist groups needed long-term combat, Atmar further said.
Pointing to intensifying insecurity in some parts of Afghanistan, NATO member countries said, ‘We will continue cooperation with Afghanistan which includes long-term military support under ‘Resolute Support’ mission and in social and economic sectors’.
Meanwhile, a number of lawmakers said, they are concerned on increasing insecurity in the country, adding that Afghanistan is still the victim of terrorism.
Therefore, NATO long-term support to Afghanistan is a dire need, the lawmakers further said.
A lower house member, Hashimi said, ‘Afghanistan is of those countries where has been giving the most victims in war on terror, therefore, NATO should have long-term cooperation with Afghanistan’.
Likewise, it is a fact that ANSF are still faced with lack of military equipment and needs international community support particularly NATO, Hashimi further said.
In the meantime, a number of military experts believe that NATO should pay serious attention in equipping ANSF with modern weaponries after their forces’ withdrawal, so they can defend their homeland against any kinds of threats independently.
A political expert, Akram said that the ANSF also need modern military equipment after NATO forces’ withdrawal.
Because, NATO and U.S. forces with their sophisticated weapons couldn’t uproot al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the past fourteen years, so it is impossible that the ANSF could uproot them with slight equipment, he further said.
The ANSF have not been yet equipped with tanks, heavy weapons, military choppers which are the basic needs of them, so if the NATO member countries want the Afghans to have a strong army beyond 2016, they should equip the ANSF with sophisticated weapons.
This is while that NATO have had many ministerial sessions on Afghanistan’s situation up to now, as in the last one, the organization committed in nonstop cooperation with Afghanistan.
Suraya Raiszada
