As Joe Biden arrives in Brussels this week for his first NATO summit as president, he must confront allies’ lingering resentment over a drawdown in Afghanistan and tackle the thorny issues involved in securing the country’s future
Afghan security personnel inspect the site of a bomb explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan, on June 12. Separate bombs hit two minivans in the Afghan capital. | AP Photo/Rahmat GulNATO allies have made no secret of their frustration with President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw forces from Afghanistan unconditionally by Sept. 11.
“It’s not a surprise that you’ve seen some countries express, pretty straightforwardly, their dissatisfaction with the way things were done,” said one European official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. “This is another example of one of the issues where within NATO, we should be more substantially discussing and consulting with one another before making decisions.”
“This set the stage for an improved tempo of consultation with NATO, during which several scenarios and possible outcomes were discussed,” the official said. The official declined to say whether the proposal to move to a time-based withdrawal was discussed. “The intention was never to stay there forever,” Stoltenberg said during a Monday event at the Atlantic Council, ahead of his first meeting with Biden as president. “The decision to leave entails risks, but at the same time we will leave an Afghanistan which is very different than the Afghanistan we went into in 2001."
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