NATO chief backs Biden, saying Europe was told of Afghan move
BRUSSELS — Pushing back against European complaints that the Biden administration had failed to consult its allies over the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’S secretarygeneral, said those objections were exaggerated and that NATO had given unanimous approval for the withdrawal as far back as April.
Stoltenberg also said that talk of a new, separate European Union military force — which some have argued is necessary in the aftermath of the collapse of Afghanistan — could only weaken the trans-atlantic alliance and divide the continent.
“You see different voices in Europe, and some are talking about the lack of consultation, but I was present in those meetings,” Stoltenberg said late Thursday in a wide-ranging interview at NATO’S headquarters. “Of course the United States consulted with European allies, but at the end of the day, every nation has to make their own decision on deploying forces.”
He acknowledged that the consultation was somewhat artificial, because once the U.S. decided to withdraw, he said, “it was hard for other allies to continue without the United States. It was not a realistic option.”
Stoltenberg is described by those familiar with his thinking as unhappy with the decision by
President Joe Biden to leave Afghanistan by Sept. 11 without conditions. He had urged “a conditional withdrawal” that would have required the Taliban to follow through on its vow to seek a negotiated political solution.
NATO allies did push for a political process, Stoltenberg said, even after former President Donald Trump signed a bilateral deal with the Taliban in February 2020 that excluded the Afghan government and set May 1 for U.S. troop withdrawal.
“The problem was that the Taliban did not want to negotiate if the government in Kabul was part of those negotiations,” he said.
Biden has been pilloried in the United States for his decision to withdraw last month, against the advice of top generals, and for the rushed, chaotic evacuation.
But Stoltenberg, defending Biden, blamed the rapid collapse in Afghanistan not on Washington or NATO but on the Afghan government.
“What we saw was a collapse of the political and military leadership," he said, "and that triggered the collapse of the whole defense against the Taliban.”
In the aftermath of the collapse of Kabul, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell Fontelles, has urged the creation of a new rapid-reaction force of some 5,000 troops or more to be able to handle operations like the Kabul airport without the United States. Other Europeans have called for the revival of plans formed in the early 2000s to create battle groups of willing countries, and some have even resurfaced an older unrealized goal of having 50,000-60,000 troops able to deploy within 60 days for up to a year.
Asked about the dangers of mixing the war on terrorism with nation-building, Stoltenberg hesitated. NATO’S job was combating terrorism, he said, and governments and aid agencies made choices about nation-building. NATO tried to provide them security, but concentrated on its own mission.
Stoltenberg nonetheless suggested that governments should think hard before using force to solve problems.
The failures of Western intervention should remind everyone, he said, “how serious it is to use military force and to go into another country.” If history has any lesson, he said, “it’s that it’s easier to start a military operation than to end it.”