By KUNA,
Brussels : Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is visiting New York on Wednesday to meet with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss a range of issues including Kosovo and Afghanistan, said a brief NATO statement.
The 26-member alliance has about 40,000 troops under its ISAF mission in Afghanistan. Speaking at the NATO parliamentary assembly’s spring session in Berlin on Tuesday, Scheffer underlined NATO’s long-term commitment to Afghanistan and the importance of working closely with all the nations and international organizations supporting progress there.
“Afghanistan remains a key issue on our post-Bucharest agenda,” he said.
The NATO summit in Bucharest in April adopted a Strategic Vision for Afghanistan. NATO Defense Ministers will make a first assessment of progress in Afghanistan when they meet in Brussels in two weeks time. He also stressed NATO’s commitment to its KFOR mission Kosovo where it currently leads some 15,000 international forces.