Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin will meet senior officials from the alliance’s 30 members on Wednesday to discuss how to coordinate the withdrawal of NATO forces in concert with the departure of the remaining American troops.
US President Joe Biden at an event at the US Capitol. Pic/AFP
President Joe Biden’s top national security aides are briefing NATO about US plans to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin will meet senior officials from the alliance’s 30 members on Wednesday to discuss how to coordinate the withdrawal of NATO forces in concert with the departure of the remaining American troops.
The coalition operation in Afghanistan has special resonance with NATO as its deployment marked the first time the alliance invoked its Article 5 mutual defence pact, which holds that an attack on one member is an attack on all. Biden is to formally announce his withdrawal plans later Wednesday in Washington, according to senior officials who previewed the move on Tuesday.
Blinken and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg kicked off Wednesday’s meetings at NATO headquarters in Brussels by recalling the alliance’s success in driving Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network from Afghanistan. But Blinken also maintained the allies would not abandon the country despite the impending pullout.
“Together, we went into Afghanistan to deal with those who attacked us and to make sure that Afghanistan would not again become a haven for terrorists who might attack any of us,” Blinken said.
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