After Afghanistan pullout, US seeks NATO basing, intel pacts

ATHENS – Against the backdrop of the unit withdrawal from Afghanistan, the apical U.S. subject serviceman is gathering successful Greece with NATO counterparts this weekend, hoping to forge much basing, quality sharing and different agreements to forestall violent groups from regrouping and threatening America and the region.

Army Gen. Mark Milley, president of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the gathering of NATO defence chiefs volition absorption successful portion connected the mode up present that each confederation troops person pulled retired of Afghanistan and the Taliban are successful control.

Milley, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and American quality officials person warned that al-Qaida oregon the Islamic State radical could regenerate successful Afghanistan and airs a menace to the United States successful 1 twelvemonth to 2 years.

The U.S. subject has said it tin behaviour counterterrorism surveillance and, if necessary, strikes successful Afghanistan from “over the horizon” — meaning from assets based successful different countries. But they person made it wide that surveillance flights from bases successful the Persian Gulf are agelong and supply constricted clip successful the aerial implicit Afghanistan. So they person talked astir seeking basing agreements, overflight rights and accrued intelligence-sharing with nations person to Afghanistan, including immoderate neighbors.

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In caller months, however, U.S. officials person reported small advancement successful immoderate negotiations connected immoderate basing agreements.

Milly said helium volition beryllium talking to his subject counterparts “to spot what the possibilities are and past bring them back” to U.S. defence and diplomatic leaders for further discussions. Then, helium said, officials volition spot what they tin crook into a reality.

“We are going to speech astir implicit the skyline capabilities and wherever allies deliberation due that they tin marque a publication , we’re surely unfastened to that,” Milley told reporters traveling with him to Greece. “There are opportunities wherever confederation members whitethorn take to enactment intimately with america connected these implicit the skyline capabilities.”

He said allies are acrophobic astir counterterrorism and however to guarantee an effectual defence against terrorists.

At the opening of the greeting league Saturday, NATO subject leaders made it wide that avoiding a resurgence of coercion successful Afghanistan is simply a cardinal extremity for the alliance.

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Greece's defence minister, Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, told the radical that allies indispensable guarantee the information and information of at-risk Afghans who stay successful the state and indispensable forestall a humanitarian crisis.

More than 120,000 Americans, Afghans and others were flown retired of Afghanistan during the chaotic and monolithic airlift cognition successful the days aft Kabul, the capital, fell to the Taliban. But thousands much were near behind, with galore fleeing to the borders and seeking assistance from assistance agencies and advertisement hoc groups struggling to find ways retired of the country.

Human rights and exile groups are urging the European Union to measurement up its assistance for radical trying to fly Afghanistan. The EU’s asylum bureau said that asylum applications by Afghans numbered 7,300 successful July, earlier the authorities fell, and that was a 21% summation implicit June. Almost 1,200 were unaccompanied minors. More than fractional of asylum applications by Afghans successful Europe are rejected.

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“We are going done a play of important challenges successful Afghanistan,” said Panagiotopoulos, adding that a cardinal hazard is the migration travel toward Europe. He said allies request to “provide enactment to those countries successful the contiguous vicinity and indispensable debar a migration situation astatine our borders.

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