Afghanistan not on agenda as Nato leaders gather in Lithuania

ATLANTA (Pajhwok): A two-day NATO summit is scheduled to begin in Lithuania on Tuesday with overarching aim to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin of the alliance’s long-term military commitment to Ukraine.
NATO press office in Belgium told Pajhwok Afghan News that presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers of all 31 allies would participate in the summit.
On the other hand, NATO website published a statement, saying the alliance was facing severe security challenges after the Cold War.
It said the alliance would discuss how to protect its one billion people and its geography.
NATO said the summit will discuss threats to this organization, future plans, strengthening of the organization, defense and how to bring Ukraine closer to the alliance.
A day before the summit, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and host country Lithuania President Gatanas Noseda gave information about the meeting in a joint press conference.
NATO Secretary General thanked the government and people of Lithuania for hosting the meeting.
Stoltenberg said in this meeting, along with strengthening the organization’s defense, there will be discussions on Ukraine and its approach to NATO.
Presidents of NATO member countries, including US President Joe Biden, have arrived in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.
Political affairs expert Muhammad Shafiq Hamdard said Afghanistan was not on the agenda of the NATO summit because now NATO had no military presence in the country and was no longer interested.
He told Pajhwok that currently NATO was focused on Ukraine and some other areas and they were discussing a lot about them.
Hamdard said due to wrong policies of the current rulers of Afghanistan, the world was slowly ignoring Afghanistan and was not discussing the country in international conferences.
At the NATO summit, Washington will focus on the current and long-term security needs of Ukraine, a White House official said Thursday.
John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, told VOA that at the summit in Lithuania July 11-12, the US wants to focus on the current fight Ukraine is in and support Kyiv’s immediate and long-term security needs.