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NATO Endorses Plan to Exit Afghanistan

   VOA Afghanistan Service 20 November 2010
   Afghan  President Hamid Karzai at the Nato summit in Lisbon, Portugal,
   20 Nov 2010

Photo: AP

   Afghan  President Hamid Karzai at the Nato summit in Lisbon, Portugal,
   20 Nov 2010

   NATO  leaders  on  Saturday  endorsed  a  plan  to  start transferring
   leadership  of  the  war  in Afghanistan to Kabul, and completely hand
   over military control to Afghan forces by 2014.
   Afghan  President Hamid Karzai welcomed the decision of what he called
   the "effective, irreversible and sustainable" transition.
   NATO  Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he does not foresee
   foreign troops in a combat role in Afghanistan after 2014.
   Rasmussen  said  he  is  "confident"  the  parties could meet the 2014
   deadline,  but  cautioned  the  move  would  depend  on  the  security
   situation in Afghanistan.
   Standing next to the NATO chief and Afghan leader on the second day of
   the  2-day NATO summit in Lisbon, United Nations Secretary-General Ban
   Ki Moon cautioned that the drawdown has to be guided by "realities not
   schedules."
   Leaders  of  the  28-member  organization  are expected to meet on the
   sidelines of the main meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
   NATO  is  to  invite  Moscow to take part in the U.S.-European missile
   defense shield and agree on expanding the alliance's supply routes for
   Afghanistan through Russia.
   Earlier on Saturday, the NATO chief pledged that the military alliance
   would not abandon Afghanistan to its "enemies."
   He  said  NATO  would  stay  "as  long as it takes to finish our job,"
   adding  that  Afghanistan's  fight against terrorism is of "strategic,
   global importance."
   On  Friday  - the opening day of the summit - the NATO leaders reached
   agreement on establishing a missile defense system that will cover all
   member countries, including the United States. Â
   NATO on Friday also agreed to a new, 10-year mission statement for the
   military  alliance,  that  lays out how the organization plans to meet
   the security challenges of the 21st century.
   NATO  members  also  backed  the approval of a START missile pact. Mr.
   Obama  has  called  on  the  U.S.  Senate to ratify the treaty between
   Moscow  and  Washington,  aimed at cutting deployed nuclear weapons by
   about 30 percent.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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