The NATO mission in Afghanistan began after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. It was supposed to prevent the spread of terrorism from this country. For the first time, Washington has launched NATO’s mutual defense clause. The Allies joined the United States soon after.

NATO led the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2014. There were more than 130,000 troops in Afghanistan at its peak. NATO’s follow-up Resolute Support Mission, launched in 2015, focuses on training and supporting Afghan security forces.

Over the past two decades, the international community has spent billions of dollars assisting and providing security for the reconstruction of Afghanistan and the formation of a new democratic government. Its main goal is to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a port for those planning attacks against Western countries.

One of the possible reasons why the end of the military mission has not been officially announced may be, according to DPA and the fact that the US National Mission is still in Afghanistan. But US President Joe Biden said America would step down at the end of August. He initially spoke of 9/11, the twentieth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

In February 2020, after a year and a half of negotiations with Washington, Washington signed an agreement with the Taliban in the Qatari city of Doha. The agreement requires the United States to withdraw all international troops by May 1, 2021. In return for the departure of Taliban troops, it guarantees that it will prevent Afghan territory from becoming a base for attacks against the United States and its allies. The Taliban also promised to hold peace talks with the government. They started in September 2020, but were not very successful.

The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated since international troops withdrew in May. The Taliban have launched several attacks, taking control of more than a quarter of the country’s districts, many in the north. The security forces were only able to retake a few districts. The departure of foreign troops seriously affects the morale of the Afghan army, which has begun to surrender in large numbers in recent weeks.

There are fears that the country could fall under Taliban control after a mass exodus of international troops. NATO has repeatedly condemned critics of leaving the country in recent months, stressing that financial support to Afghanistan will continue, as well as ongoing training of Afghan special forces abroad.

At the end of June, the last 12 Czech soldiers with material from the Alliance mission in Afghanistan also returned to the Czech Republic. Since 2002, 11,500 Czech soldiers have taken part in the mission, 14 of whom have died.