The Hill – Dec. 1, 2015 – NATO leaders have agreed to keep 12,000 troops in Afghanistan through 2016 to support the U.S.-led mission there, the alliance announced Tuesday.
The decision comes after President Obama announced in October that the United States would keep 9,800 U.S. troops there for most of 2016 before drawing down to 5,500 the following year.
Combat operations officially ended in 2014, though U.S. and NATO troops remain in the country to train and advise Afghan military forces.
The announcement on Afghanistan came during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. The ministers are also expected to discuss issues facing NATO, including Turkey’s downing of a Russian fighter jet it said violated its airspace, as well as Russia’s incursion into Ukraine.
“The security environment in which we meet today is dark,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday at a press conference to start the meeting. “Terrorist attacks, violent instability, the breach of international rules. These are serious challenges from many different directions. And NATO is responding.”