NATO responds to reports of Chinese Military base in Afghanistan
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KABUL - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has urged close regional cooperation to address ongoing crisis in Afghanistan.
The secretary general expressed the view while addressing a press conference on Thursday after the NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels, the capital of Belgium.
When asked about recent media reports about China plan to establish a military base in northeastern Afghanistan in order to control Uyghur militants in the area, Stoltenberg said: “It's impossible to solve the crisis in Afghanistan without close cooperation with the other countries in the region, and China is one of them. But it's not for NATO to decide on whether China is going to have any kind of military presence in Afghanistan that’s for Afghanistan to decide.”
He added: “As long as we support the government, respect the decisions of the Afghan government, then I think the important message is that this is up for the Afghan government to decide. We have seen the reports, but it's not for me, in a way, to have any… to give advice on that, it's for the Afghan government to decide.”
After the last working session of defence ministerial meeting NATO took decisions which would further strengthen the security of the Alliance.
Stoltenberg said NATO was committed to projecting stability beyond the alliance borders and play a key role in the fight against terrorism.
