NATO supports talks with Taliban to find political solution in Afghanistan

BRUSSELS, Feb 15 (KUNA) -- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that there is no military solution in Afghanistan and stressed that a political solution is the only way out to bring peace to the war-ravaged country.
"We don't think that there is a military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, but we strongly believe that we need a strong Afghan force to be able to create the conditions for a political solution. Taliban has to understand that they will never win on the battlefield, so they have to come to the negotiating table and agree to a political solution," he told a press conference after the end of a two-day meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels.
The NATO chief welcomed any efforts to find a political solution and stressed that this should be an Afghan-led and an Afghan-owned peace process, "which also of course, at some stage, has to include finding a political solution with the Taliban. But Taliban has to understand that they cannot win on the battlefield, they have to sit down and negotiate." (Pick up previous) nk.mt