WALES SUMMIT AND NATO'S CHANGING ROLE IN AFGHANISTAN

 FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

FACT SHEET: Wales Summit – NATO’s Changing Role in Afghanistan

NATO’s mission in Afghanistan has been the Alliance’s largest and one of its longest-running military operations, with 50 coalition countries contributing a peak of 140,000 troops over a 13-year campaign.  The United States, together with NATO Allies and partners, support a sovereign, stable, unified, and democratic Afghanistan and will continue our partnership with Afghanistan based on the principles of mutual respect and mutual accountability.  Moreover, we believe that an Afghan-led peace and reconciliation process is the surest way to end violence and ensure lasting stability for Afghanistan and the region.

International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).  Since 2001, ISAF has assisted Afghan authorities in maintaining security and developing the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), per a United Nations mandate and at the request of the Afghan government.  The ISAF mission is part of the overall international effort to enable the Government of Afghanistan to exercise its authority throughout the country by providing security and stability to the Afghan people.  NATO assumed command of the ISAF mission in August 2003.

At the Lisbon Summit in 2010, Afghanistan and ISAF nations, including the United States, committed to transition full responsibility for security to the Afghan Government by the end of 2014.  Afghanistan and ISAF nations reaffirmed that commitment in 2012 at the Chicago Summit and took a step further announcing a mid-2013 milestone after which the ANSF would be in the lead for security nationwide and the ISAF role would transition from combat to support.

Since June 2013, the ANSF has been in the lead, with modest coalition support, and has exceeded most expectations.  Today, ISAF forces focus primarily on training, advising, and assisting their Afghan counterparts.  At the end of 2014, the ANSF will assume full responsibility for security and the ISAF mission will end.

Resolute Support.  At the Wales Summit, NATO Allies and partners reaffirmed their intent to conduct a non-combat train, advise, and assist mission in Afghanistan beyond 2014, known as Resolute Support, contingent upon the Afghans signing a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) and a status of forces agreement (SOFA) with NATO.  This new advisory mission would be at the security ministry and national institutional level, with advising to the ANSF at the corps level and advising to Afghan special operations forces at the tactical level.  This non-combat mission would be centered in the Kabul-Bagram area, with a regional presence in the north, west, south, and east. It would initially include approximately 12,000 troops.  Four Allied nations have agreed to serve as “framework nations” – Turkey will lead in the capital; Germany will lead in the north; Italy will lead in the west; and the United States will lead in the south and east.  NATO is prepared to commence this mission at the beginning of 2015.

For the United States’ part, President Obama announced on May 27, 2014 that the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan will end by the end of this year and, contingent upon a signed BSA and NATO SOFA, the United States would be prepared to continue “two narrow missions” in Afghanistan after 2014:  “training Afghan forces and supporting counterterrorism operations against the remnants of al-Qa’ida.”

At the beginning of 2015, we anticipate 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan with the majority participating in the NATO-led Resolute Support mission.  By the end of 2015, we would reduce that presence by roughly half, consolidating our troops in Kabul and Bagram Airfield.  By the end of 2016, our military presence would shift to a strong security assistance mission based from our embassy.  This presence would serve as the basis for sustained security cooperation with the Afghan government and continued coordination with Allies’ and partners’ efforts to advise and assist the Afghan security ministries and to continue to develop ANSF capabilities.

Financial Sustainment of the ANSF.  At the Wales Summit, NATO Allies and partners renewed their commitment to contribute significantly to the financial sustainment of the ANSF through the end of 2017 and to financially sustain the ANSF throughout the decade of transformation.  The international community has pledged nearly €1 billion annually to sustain the ANSF for 2015 through the end of 2017.  The United States has requested up to $4.1 billion in our 2015 budget, which would help sustain the ANSF surge end strength of 352,000 through 2015.  The United States expects that Afghanistan will assume an increasing portion of ANSF sustainment costs beginning with $500 million in 2015, as agreed at the Chicago Summit.  To ensure that donors can confidently commit their financial support to the ANSF over the long term, NATO Allies and partners welcomed the development of effective funding mechanisms including the strengthening of the Afghan National Army Trust Fund and the establishment of the Oversight and Coordination Body.  And finally, NATO Allies and partners look forward to working with Afghanistan to review planning for a sufficient and sustainable ANSF beyond 2015.

NATO-Afghanistan Enduring Partnership.  At the Wales Summit, NATO nations reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen its enduring partnership with Afghanistan, which would serve as the foundation for longer term security cooperation between NATO and Afghanistan.

OUT-GOING NATO COMMANDER IN AFGHANISTAN IS CONFIDENT ABOUT THE FUTURE

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Allen 'Very Confident' About Afghanistan's Future
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 10, 2013 - There are measures of success every day in Afghanistan and the out-going commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force is very confident of victory.

Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen spoke to reporters traveling with Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shortly before turning over command to Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. Allen has been nominated to be the next Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

Allen said he is "very confident" that NATO and their Afghan partners are on the right trajectory. "We have seen some really heroic level activities occur here in just the last year," Allen said. "What happened last summer was unbelievable when you think about it. We shipped home 23,000 troops during the fighting season. We shifted from a main force strategy that relied on U.S. and ISAF combat formations to one where the (Afghan National Security Forces) were in the lead – an ANSF that was still being built while it was expanding its operations in the combat zone."

At the same time, NATO closed 600 bases in Afghanistan.

Today, another 10,000 U.S. troops have been withdrawn and Afghan forces are almost entirely in the lead for security throughout the country. Afghan government forces have taken ground, they have held ground already taken and they are forcing the Taliban to launch attacks farther and farther away from centers of population, he said.

Commanders have repeatedly stressed that there will not be a victory parade ending hostilities in Afghanistan, rather it remains a counterinsurgency battle and leaders measure progress incrementally. "Every day, there is another lamination of accomplishment," he said. "There is no decisive battle in the Napoleonic sense, just every day these laminations contributing to the end state."

The general said he is comfortable the trajectory is moving in the right direction. Allen is however concerned about a lag in efforts by the Afghan government to put structures in place to build on counterinsurgency efforts.
Still, the country has come a long way. Afghanistan has been in serious conflict for 33 years, with much of its infastructure destroyed which will take time and money to rebuild. "The school system was devastated," Allen said.

The good news is the international community has pledged to help. During NATO meetings in Lisbon and Chicago, NATO and partner nations pledged to stay with Afghanistan through this transition. In Tokyo and Bonn, nations pledged money to help Afghanistan overcome generation of tragedy. Nations understand what one of the world's poorest countries needs and have pledged a "decade of transformation."

One upcoming benchmark will be the presidential election set for April 2014. The 352,000 members of the Afghan national security force will secure the vote. "The international community is very clear that it will judge the success of what we have done by the transparency and inclusiveness of the Afghan population. We've been very clear on this: the international community is in this to a point, but we aren't in this to a fault," Allen said.

That contest he says, will be a true test of Afghanistan's progress. "The rhetoric has to be matched by real and meaningful reform. Reform that reduces the capacity of the criminal patronage networks to grip and weaken the institutions of the state." Reforms must also guarantee the rights of minorities and women, Allen said.

Donor nations must have the strategic patience, but there has to be demonstrated performance, he said.

Allen is less concerned about the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan post-2014 than he is about the capabilities needed in the country.

GEN. ALLEN PREDICTS HOPE AND CHALLENGE

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Allen Predicts Period of Hope and Challenge in Afghanistan's Future

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23, 2012 - After the International Security Assistance Force mission ends in December 2014, Afghanistan will experience a period of hope combined with lots of challenges, the ISAF commander said today.

Speaking to Pentagon reporters via satellite from his command in Kabul, Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen said Afghan security forces will be at full strength by 2015 with 352,000 members, and Afghanistan will have a new, democratically elected government.

Afghan forces will be fully in the lead for the security of the entire Afghan population, and they will be deployed in a manner to deal with violence

Apparent improvements in security will create opportunity for improved governance from both Afghanistan's central government and the provincial governments throughout the nation, the general said.

Enhanced security has provided opportunity for improved governance at the at the local level, "which is really key for the Afghans -- increasingly key, even today, in some areas of Afghanistan where we have seen really dramatic improvements in security," Allen said.

"This is now the moment for [Afghan President Hamid Karzai's] administration to begin the process of concentrating on subprovincial and district governance and the establishment of the rule of law," he said. As security continues to improve, he added, Afghanistan has the opportunity to improve subnational governance and give the Afghan people the chance to commit themselves to the government.

Allen noted by Jan. 1, 2015, Afghanistan will have new national leadership in place following democratic elections.

"So we will see a transition in [2014] to a new administration and a new government with a new president," he said. "And that president will have seen the period of time in the last 28 months, in the last several years, of the emergence of an Afghan national security force."

The general described the 2015 Afghan security force as professionals willing to sacrifice mightily on behalf of the Afghan people to achieve a level of security to give the new administration, ministries and judiciaries the opportunity to become a part of Afghan citizens' lives.

Allen also said the Afghan people will feel the reassurance of the international community as it fulfills the commitments to Afghanistan decided upon three months ago at NATO's summit in Chicago.

""[Afghans will see] the promises that were made by the heads of state of the ISAF coalition in Chicago to continue to support and sustain the [Afghan national security forces] ... with the right amount of resources."

Afghanistan also will see support from some form of an international force in Afghanistan to provide for the continued professionalization and development of Afghan security forces, Allen said.

After the current transition is complete at the end of 2014, Allen said, a decade of transformation will follow.

"The international community, in close partnership with the new administration ... will move forward to take advantage of the sacrifices that have been made by the troops of ISAF and the coalition and, increasingly, the sacrifices that are being made every single day by the [Afghan forces]," he said. "They will move forward together into the decade of transformation starting on the first day of January 2015, into what I believe will be a period of hope."

But challenges lie ahead in the next 28 months, the general acknowledged, including the installation of governance, the embracing of rule of law, and rooting out corruption.

"I believe the Afghan people understand [that]," Allen said. "We will prove that the international community will not abandon Afghanistan."