NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said foreign troops would shift to a support role as Afghan security forces take over, but he insisted that the alliance was sticking to plans to continue the mission until 2014. We expect the last provinces to be handed over to the Afghanistan security forces by mid-2013,” Rasmussen told reporters ahead of two days of talks among NATO defence ministers. “From that time Afghan security forces are in the lead all over Afghanistan. And from that time, the role of our troops will gradually change from combat to support. In that, there’s nothing new,” he said. US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta had indicated on Wednesday that NATO would “transition from a combat role to a train and advise and assist role” by the end of 2013. Panetta told his counterparts on Thursday that “it doesn’t mean we’ll end combat operations” after 2013, a diplomat said on condition of anonymity. “We’re not going to shy away from combat operations in 2014 if we need to,” said a senior US defence official. NATO officials took pains to explain that there was no change to a plan adopted a summit in Lisbon in November 2010, insisting that Western troops will still be involved in combat until the transition is completed in 2014. “We all recognise that in 2013 there will be an evolution in the mission,” British Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond told reporters.
“The Afghans will be having lead responsibility for security throughout the whole country, but we will remain there in a combat support role and we will continue to do so in our case until the end of 2014.” NATO leaders will decide on a more precise timeline for the 2013 handover of lead responsibility when they meet a summit in Chicago in May, said a senior US defence official. With President Barack Obama facing a tough re-election campaign, the remarks represented the strongest signal yet that the White House wants to wrap up the wars it inherited from George W. Bush. US troops completed their withdrawal from Iraq in December. Despite NATO assurances that insurgents are on the back foot, a leaked secret NATO document, based on thousands of detainee interrogations, showed the Taliban believe they can reconquer Afghanistan once Western forces are gone. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is also facing a difficult election, had appeared to upend the strategy last week when announcing that France would withdraw combat forces a year early, at the end of 2013. French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet told his counterparts that Paris was “committed to the Lisbon plan,” a French official said. While France will end its combat role next year, a number of soldiers will stay behind to continue the training mission, even after 2014. Rasmussen indicated that the 28-nation alliance was in sync. “Based on all I have heard, and all I have seen, I think all allies and all partners stick to the decisions we took in Lisbon,” he said. Panetta said Washington wanted to see all the NATO allies “respect” the alliance’s timeline. “We all went in here together and we’ll all go out together, but we have to do it on the basis of a strong alliance and a strong commitment that was made in Lisbon.” Despite the shift, the United States has no plans to move up the 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of American and coalition forces, the Pengaton chief said. With nearly 90,000 US troops now in Afghanistan, Panetta said “no decision has been made with regards to the level of forces we’ll have in 2013.” By the end of September, the number of US troops is due to drop to 68,000, following the scheduled withdrawal of a “surge force” that deployed in 2010. A future training force could include a counter-terrorism mission to strike extremists, along with standard training efforts, he said. The talks in Brussels were also focusing on ways for the alliance to retain strong armed forces despite budget cuts and plans to erect a missile shield for Europe. The air force base in Ramstein, Germany, will host the system’s command centre, a base spokesman said.