WASHINGTON (AP) — NATO’s secretary general says he’s optimistic that the international community will continue to finance the Afghan security forces.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen (AHN’-derz fohg RAHS’-moo-sihn) tells CNN that supporting the Afghan forces is less expensive than deploying NATO troops. Fogh Rasmussen says that the international community in general has a responsibility and interest in ensuring the Afghan forces take full responsibility for security after 2014 so that terrorist safe havens aren’t reestablished.
The NATO summit opens Sunday in Chicago. President Barack Obama is expected to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the summit’s sidelines to discuss planning for Afghanistan’s 2014 elections and the prospect of a political settlement with the Taliban. NATO’s plans keep foreign forces in Afghanistan through the 2014 election but exiting the country by 2015.
