NATO outlines long-term engagement in Afghanistan at Wales summit

NATO leaders at the Wales Summit on Thursday outlined the long-term engagement in Afghanistan after the end of the NATO-led combat mission in the country since 2003.

Leaders from 28 NATO nations joined by ISAF partner countries agreed to launch a non-combat mission in Afghanistan after 2014 to help train, advise and assist Afghan security forces.

"The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan will conclude at the end of 2014 as planned. For over a year, the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) have been in the lead for combat operations throughout the country," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a press conference.

"With the end of ISAF in December, we will change the nature and the scope of our involvement in Afghanistan," said Rusmussen.

The post-2014 Resolute Support Mission is one of the three pillars of NATO's long-term engagement in Afghanistan, along with the financial commitments to support the sustainment of the Afghan National Army and the strengthening of long-term political and practical cooperation with Afghanistan.

Afghan Defence Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, leaders from Central Asian states, as well as representatives from key international community partners from the United Nations and the European Union also attended the meeting.