KABUL - The NATO Secretary General Andres Fogh Rasmussen said that the Taliban has a clear strategy to shake the confidence of Afghan forces, but stressed that they would not succeed in defeating NATO's strategy.
"Taliban has a clearly laid out strategy to turn the mind, the confidence of the Afghan security forces. But let me also stress that they can't derail our strategy," he said Tuesday at a press conference in Brussels. "Our strategy is to gradually hand over full responsibility for the security to the Afghans and that process will continue and be completed by the end of 2014."

"This is the reason why it is an essential part of our mission in Afghanistan to train and educate Afghan security forces to build up their capability to take that full responsibility and these training efforts will continue," he said.
The NATO leader also said that it was necessary for both NATO and Pakistan to cooperate.

"I still hope that we will see the reopening of the transit routes, and in the not too distant future," he said.

Responding to a question about the impact of the closed supply lines impasse, he added: "No, it is not a business as usual. We have seen a decline in co-operation activities during recent months which I strongly regret because I think it is of mutual interest to have close co-operation between Pakistan and NATO."

Rasmussen also said that the international community should come forward to help the country's development and support the elimination of corruption.
Efforts to reopen the NATO supply route - which shut following the November 26 airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers - have intensified. (Tolo News)