KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, during an unannounced visit to Afghanistan Thursday, promised continued alliance support after foreign combat troops leave the country by year’s end.

“NATO and our partners have stood with Afghanistan for more than a decade,” Stoltenberg said during a joint news conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. “Next year, we will open a new chapter. The future of Afghanistan will be in Afghan hands. But our support will continue.”

After the NATO-led combat mission ends this year, about 12,000 foreign troops — 9,800 of them American — will remain primarily to advise and assist Afghan security forces.

Ghani praised the alliance’s efforts, noting NATO troops have “stood shoulder to shoulder” with Afghan National Security Forces during the bloodiest days of the 13-year war. While he said he was confident Afghan forces will be able to secure the country after 2014, Ghani noted that effort would depend on continued financial backing from Washington and NATO.

NATO has committed to fund Afghanistan’s 350,000 security forces at $4.1 billion annually. At a NATO summit in Wales in September, alliance leaders committed to continue funding through 2017.

Afghanistan’s new president was supposed to attend that summit, but because election results were still in dispute, the country was represented by the defense minister. Stoltenberg invited Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah — chief executive in the new unity government and Ghani’s rival in the protracted election — to attend a NATO ministerial meeting on Dec. 2.

Stoltenberg said NATO wanted to develop its “long-term partnership with Afghanistan.”

“At the same time, we count on our Afghan partners to play their part.”

As the U.S. and its allies continue to withdraw combat forces, there are concerns that the Afghan forces are not ready to take over full responsibility for the country’s security, especially given the high casualty tolls they have suffered this year in fighting Taliban insurgents.

In an interview with Foreign Policy magazine earlier this week, Gen. John Campbell, the top U.S. officer in Afghanistan, said he was reviewing whether Afghan forces were ready and whether he should recommend through his chain of command that additional NATO forces stay longer.

The Pentagon remains focused on the postwar troop numbers and deployment schedule laid out by the White House, International Security Assistance Force-Joint Command chief Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson said Wednesday.

Anderson declined to comment during a video briefing from Kabul for Pentagon reporters on whether Campbell was seriously considering a U.S. postwar force above the 9,800 specified by the White House and Pentagon.

“The 9,800 number is the number, and that’s the number that we’re moving towards on Dec. 31st. And anything beyond that number is not in my ballpark,” Anderson said.

However, he said any analysis being done by Campbell’s staff regarding the postwar plan is “a logical, natural thing that we all do, based on the environment” in Afghanistan.

munoz.carlo@stripes.com

