NATO to keep some troops in Afghanistan after 2016

NATO will keep some troops in Afghanistan even after its current training mission ends around the end of next year, the alliance said on Wednesday, in a signal of support for Afghan security forces struggling to repel a Taliban offensive.

"Today we agreed that we will maintain a presence in Afghanistan even after the end of our current mission," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference during a meeting of alliance foreign ministers in Turkey.

Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, who met the NATO foreign ministers, said they also discussed future financial assistance for the Afghan security forces.

U.S. officials said in March that the United States would keep funding Afghan security forces at a peak level of 352,000 personnel at least until 2017, at a cost of about $4 billion annually.

The United States and other donors have committed to funding Afghan forces at least until 2017. A 2016 NATO summit in Warsaw is due to decide how to help pay for them after that.  Read More

NATO to keep some troops in Afghanistan after 2016