Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

The NATO mission is grateful to Azerbaijan for its participation in Resolute Support Mission for training and assisting the government forces of Afghanistan.

The organization expressed the gratitude via the official Twitter page of the Resolute Support Mission.

"Azerbaijan has been in Afghanistan nearly 15 years and close to 100 soldiers contribute to our mission," reads the message posted on February 6.

Resolute Support is a NATO-led training, advisory, assistance, and counter-terror mission consisting of over 13,000 troops in Afghanistan, which began on January 1, 2015. It is a follow-on mission to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which was completed on December 28, 2014.

The peacekeeping contingent of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces has been serving in Afghanistan since November 20, 2002. Currently, 90 servicemen, 2 medical officers and 2 sappers of Azerbaijani Armed Forces are participating in a mission in Afghanistan.

Azerbaijan, as a reliable partner of NATO and friend of brotherly Afghanistan, is committed to continue its significant contribution to the Resolute Support Mission by providing troops, multi-modal transit, training and financial assistance.

The country has several times made substantial donations to the Afghan National Army (ANA) Trust Fund. Moreover, Azerbaijan supports Afghanistan on its path of reforms towards integrating into regional and global economy.

Furthermore, Azerbaijan allowed the NATO planes carrying non-combat loads for a mission in Afghanistan to fly through Azerbaijan's airspace and to use the country's airports. About 40 percent of all cargo destined for the NATO mission in Afghanistan pass through Baku.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz