NATO foreign ministers urge Afghanistan to sign security deal with US

NATO Foreign Ministers Wednesday called for a timely signature of the Bilateral Security Agreement between the United States and Afghanistan, which will pave the way for NATO to establish its own legal framework for its new mission to train, advise and assist the Afghan security forces after 2014.

“We have made it clear to the visiting Afghan Ministers that we need that legal clarity before we can move ahead with planning our deployment”, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen hinted that if President Hamid Karzai is not willing to sign the agreement any other representative of the Afghan government could sign it.

The elections are scheduled for April next year and the Afghan security forces will be primarily responsible for ensuring they are held in a secure environment with ISAF forces playing a backup role.

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