US decision paves way for sustained North Atlantic Treaty Organisation presence in Afghanistan

He stated the Alliance will take key selections within the coming weeks concerning the future scope of the Resolute Support Mission, a brand new NATO-led mission launched on January 1 to offer additional coaching, recommendation and help for the Afghan safety forces and establishments.

Stoltenberg was on a two-day visit with ambassadors from NATO’s North Atlantic Council.

Supporters of Montenegro’s membership bid say it would send a message to Russian Federation that it can not halt NATO’s expansion, though it is a much less contentious step than the alliance’s earlier overtures to the likes of former Soviet Georgia, whose own membership ambitions were quashed by a war with Russian Federation in 2008.

The country’s defence reforms have continued apace and public opinion – finally – has swung clearly in favour of joining the alliance, they said.

“Montenegro is a very strong aspirant for membership”, he told a news conference with Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, emphasizing the need to complete promised changes. “We have many reasons for optimism that in such an atmosphere we will be able to achieve our goals”, Dukanovic said as quoted on the Montenegro government website on Thursday.

Anti-NATO sentiments are due partly to NATO’s bombing campaign against Yugoslavia over Kosovo in 1999.

In recent months, the Afghan government has been faced with a resurgent Taliban and the spread of the Islamic State to multiple provinces.