Washington, Feb 29 (IANS) NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen says violence in Afghanistan would not affect the planned transition of security responsibility to the country’s forces.
Addressing a press conference in Washington, the secretary general denounced the recent killing of US servicemen by Afghans in violence that erupted over the burning of copies of Quran by American soldiers.
“The very tragic events will not in any way affect the timeline of transition” for transfering security tasks from coalition to Afghan forces, he said.
“I remind you that 130,000 ISAF troops work on a daily basis together with more than 300,000 Afghan security forces, and the overall picture is of cooperation characterized by trust and confidence,” Xinhua quoted him as saying.
In addition to fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force is helping train Afghan military and police to make way for its eventual withdrawal from the country by 2014.
“It would actually fulfill the strongest wishes of the enemy, if they succeeded in dividing us from our partners in the Afghan security forces, and that will not happen,” the NATO chief said.
“We must not lose sight of our goal — a stable Afghanistan,” he added. “That is in all of our interests and that must remain the focus of our shared efforts.”
