Nato chief to chair emergency meeting of alliance to discuss Afghanistan
18 August 2021, 16:54
Jens Stoltenberg will hold Friday’s meeting by videoconference.
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said he will chair an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the 30-nation military alliance on Friday to discuss developments in Afghanistan.
Mr Stoltenberg tweeted on Wednesday that he has convened the videoconference “to continue our close coordination and discuss our common approach on Afghanistan”.
I have convened an extraordinary virtual meeting of #NATO Foreign Ministers this Friday 20 August to continue our close coordination & discuss our common approach on #Afghanistan .
— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) August 18, 2021
On Tuesday, Mr Stoltenberg blamed a failure of Afghan leadership for the swift collapse of the country’s Western-backed armed forces, but he conceded that Nato must also address flaws in its military training programme.
Nato has been leading international security efforts in Afghanistan since 2003 but wound-up combat operations in 2014 to focus on training the national security forces.
Nato helped build up an army some 300,000 strong, but that force withered in the face of the Taliban offensive in just days.
Mr Stoltenberg says that around 800 civilian personnel from Nato countries continue to work in Afghanistan, many in Kabul helping with air traffic control, refuelling and communications at the airport.
