The NATO chief called on allies to contain tensions in Afghanistan
BRUSSELS (AFP) - NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday urged members not to allow differences to split over leaving Afghanistan, as defense ministers look into what went wrong.
The Taliban took power in the country after US President Joe Biden's decision to end Washington's longest-running war and the withdrawal of NATO troops.
The overthrow of the government after 20 years of Western military intervention has drawn criticism from some US allies over the decision to withdraw.
NATO was later hit by a separate dispute between France and the United States over Washington's new AUKUS defense agreement with Australia and Britain, which saw Paris lose a major submarine deal.
"Differences or disagreements about the alliance and the Axis within Afghanistan do not change the basic need and the message that Europe or North America must stand together," Stoltenberg told reporters.
"We face a more competitive world in which we face state-to-state hostility, and then it is even more important that we stand together as 30 allies."
The defense ministers are meeting in Brussels on Thursday for their first face-to-face talks following the evacuation of Chaos and major evacuation efforts.
The coalition is reviewing two decades of involvement in Afghanistan and the "lessons learned" from its devastating path.
"We will discuss the role of NATO after Afghanistan and some of the lessons learned from Afghanistan," Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said before the meeting.
Stoltenberg insisted that it was too early to draw conclusions from the devastation in Afghanistan.
"But we must not draw the wrong conclusions about Afghanistan and think that NATO allies and NATO should never again take part in military operations to fight extremism or terrorism," he said.
Stoltenberg insisted that there had been considerable consultation between the United States and other allies on the evacuation decision.
"We were clear about the dangers, the danger of the Taliban coming back," he said.
"But we also knew that the alternative was to use more violence, more fighting, and possibly more NATO troops."
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