Afghanistan Strategy Tops NATO Summit Saturday Agenda

US President Barack Obama (C) shakes hands with President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai (R) prior to a special NATO meeting on Afghanistan at the NATO summit in Lisbon. Photo by BGNES

The leaders of 28 States, members of NATO, are discussing with Afghan President Hamid Karzai the future of the alliance's military campaign in Afghanistan, BBC reports Saturday.

The talks, part of the agenda of the NATO Summit in Lisbon, are focusing on the plan to pull combat troops out of the country by the end of 2014.

NATO's Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is quoted saying the goal was "Afghan leadership" but NATO had a "continuing commitment" to the country, describing the goal as "realistic".

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has some 130,000 soldiers (including from Bulgaria) based in Afghanistan, most of them from the US.

US President Barack Obama says the ISAF mission is "moving to a new phase", but insists the target for handing over the overall responsibility for security to the Afghans remains 2014.

Under the plan there would still be a role for ISAF troops in the country in 2015 and onwards, but that would largely be in training Afghan forces.

Some NATO members have expressed concerns that Afghanistan may not be ready to manage its own security by that time.

A spokesman for President Karzai, is quoted saying NATO and Kabul have the same "strategic objectives" for the withdrawal and now need "to work out a lot of implementation issues" and set milestones for the intervening years.

The two-day Lisbon summit has been billed as one of the most important in the Alliance's history, as it seeks to update its strategy and structure to face new security threats.

On Friday, the military alliance agreed to develop a joint missile defense shield covering all member States and approved a new 10-year global plan.

The "strategic concept" commits NATO to defending all member states, countering new threats and working towards a nuclear-free world.

Obama said the new missile shield would demonstrate NATO's "determination to protect our citizens from the threat of ballistic missiles".

The Summit also supported a quick ratification of the new Start treaty between the US and Russia, aimed at cutting the nuclear weapon stockpiles of both sides.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is due to address the summit on Saturday.

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