Afghanistan request still open, says Nato chief

Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen still wants the Netherlands to remain active in Afghanistan, he says in an interview with the NRC.


‘The request is still open,’ Rasmussen said, four months after the issue led to the cabinet’s collapse. The letter which Rasmussen sent the cabinet in February is ‘remains what I think,’ the Nato leader said.
In that letter Rasmussen asks the Netherlands to stay in Afghanistan for another year to help train local forces. He also wants the Netherlands’ F-16 fighter jets to remain on active duty in Uruzgan.
The Netherlands currently has some 1,800 soldiers and support staff in the region but is due to begin withdrawing them in August.
The cabinet collapsed in February after the Labour party said it did not support the idea of a training mission.

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