As US President Barack Obama weighs his options on the number of residual force in Afghanistan, the Pentagon confirmed American military personnel would stay in the country after the completion of security transition by the end of 2014.
“I am not going to talk about what is ruled in and ruled out today… Initially yes, we will have some forces in 2014. I am not prepared to talk what that is going to look like,” Pentagon spokesman Steve Warren told an off-camera news conference.
“We outline the broader idea as we transition security to Afghan lead, we will have a force of some size which would continue to train or continue to advise and assist the Afghans as they take the entire security (responsibility) by 2014,” he said.
Defence ministers of NATO and ISAF countries are meeting in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss security transition and a post-2014 presence in Afghanistan.
They were likely to talk about the larger game-plan in Afghanistan, Warren said, remarking, “There is a lot of talk and desire about the number coming out of it. But I think the focus is going to be a bigger picture game-plan of what the train and equip force would look like in 2014.”
Regarding the political change in Pakistan, he said it was too early to determine if there would be any change in dynamics on reconciliation talks with the Taliban. “It is little early to see if there is going to be change in dynamics right now.”
