NATO foreign ministers to meet in Brussels for first time since 2019

Foreign ministers of the 30 North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries were to meet in person at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters on Tuesday for the first time in more than a year.

The ministers are to prepare for an upcoming summit by discussing a set of proposals to reform the military bloc.

New U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken was to attend his first NATO ministerial meeting, part of a European visit that may help reset trans-Atlantic relations that soured under the previous U.S. administration.

Due to COVID-19 containment measures, the last time NATO foreign ministers met face-to-face was in November 2019.

The meeting is to end Wednesday.

The allies were also set to consult on the future of their Afghan mission on Tuesday, but no decision was expected.

All eyes are on Washington as President Joe Biden decided whether his country would leave the war-torn country within weeks, as per a deal with the radical Islamist Taliban group, or stay put.

“All options are on the table and no final decision has been taken,’’ NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday at a press conference ahead of the meeting.

“We strongly support efforts to infuse fresh energy into the peace process,’’ he added.

Roughly 10,000 NATO ally or partner-country troops train Afghan security forces at present.

This is down from a peak of 100,000 when the Afghan mission was still a combat one.

However, high levels of violence may make withdrawal untenable without further destabilising the country and jeopardising strategic gains made during two decades of NATO intervention.