NATO Fails to Achieve Goals in Training of Afghan Security Forces

The mission of the NATO countries to train Afghan security forces has not reached the goals it pursued, Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vladimir Safronkov said Thursday.

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — In December 2014, NATO withdrew its forces from Afghanistan, ending its International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission, started in 2001. Instead, the Alliance launched the non-combat Operation Resolute Support mission in the country, which provided for training, advisory, assistance, and counterterror activity in Afghanistan.

"We believe that the primary responsibility for the current developments in the field of safety and training of Afghan security forces lies with NATO countries that have not so far reached the set objectives. Many other issues, which were once faced by the International Security Assistance Force, which left Afghanistan, have not yet been solved, either," Safronkov told the UN General Assembly session on Afghanistan.

Safronkov also highlighted the readiness to assist Afghanistan with the support of the "proven structures." He noted the potential of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the possibility of strengthening the counterterrorism and anti-drug cooperation in Afghanistan with the help of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

Afghanistan is suffering from the activity of the Taliban, a militant group formed in the 1990s, seeking to establish Sharia law in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and from smaller insurgent groups The Taliban has boosted its operations in Afghanistan after NATO ended its ISAF mission.