NATO Vows To Continue Training Afghan Special Forces After Withdrawal

NATO says it will continue to train Afghan security forces outside the country after the international military withdrawal in September.

“As we end our military presence, we are opening a new chapter,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Paris after talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on May 21.

Stoltenberg said NATO’s new role would involve giving “advice and capacity-building support to Afghan security institutions, as well as continued financial support.”

He said NATO also plans “to provide military education and training outside Afghanistan, focusing on Special Operations Forces.”

It was not immediately clear where the training would take place.

There are fears that the Taliban is likely to overrun Afghanistan’s battered security forces, which have relied heavily on NATO air support, intelligence, and logistics to keep the Taliban at bay, after the withdrawal.

The Taliban has launched major offensives in northern and southern Afghanistan since the start of the troop pullout on May 1, seizing districts and overrunning military bases.

The United States has said it will continue to offer support to the Western-backed Afghan government through funding and military backing from U.S. bases and ships located hundreds of miles away — the so called “over the horizon logistics.”