BRUSSELS — NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that alliance defense ministers are poised to approve a request to send several thousand more military trainers to Afghanistan.
“Our military authorities have requested a few thousand more troops for the mission in Afghanistan and today, I can confirm that we will increase our presence in Afghanistan,” Stoltenberg said at the start of a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels.
“Fifteen nations have already pledged additional contributions to Resolute Support mission,” he added.
Resolute Support is the NATO mission to train, advise and assist Afghan Security Forces, and is separate from the U.S. counterterrorism mission, Freedom’s Sentinel.
Stoltenberg gave no numbers, but U.S. defense officials have suggested the reinforcements will total between 3,000 and 5,000 troops.
“We have to put this into context and understand that this is about training, assisting and advising the Afghan forces. NATO has ended our combat operation in Afghanistan,” Stoltenberg said. “What we do now is not to conduct combat operations but to help the Afghans fight and to help the Afghans take full responsibility for the security in their own country.”
Stoltenberg said the additional troops will address three specific areas: Strengthening special operations forces, supporting the development of the Afghan air force, and officer leadership and education.
“We see a need for some more effort and some more support from NATO to the Afghans,” Stoltenberg said. “This is not about turning back into a combat mission, but this is about adjusting, strengthening the train, assist and advice mission we have in Afghanistan.
The Resolute Support mission has a total of 13,576 troops from 39 nations contributing.
Stoltenberg, who is NATO’s top civilian leader, met yesterday with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in advance of Thursday’s day-long ministerial.
Asked what NATO expected from the Americans, Stoltenberg said he looked forward to a final decision on U.S. troop contributions to buttress the Afghanistan mission, but that he didn’t expect specific troop numbers at this meeting.
