KABUL - Afghanistan has made significant progress in terms of security over the last 12 years, says the NATO secretary-general, who characterized the headway as “real and tangible”.

In 2001, Anders Fogh Rasmussen recalled, Afghanistan was used as a launching pad by international terrorists to devastating effect but threat to NATO states had been reduced.

Addressing a joint meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the North Atlantic Council in Luxembourg on Friday, he said the alliance’s job was not to build a perfect Afghanistan.

“We went to Afghanistan to protect our security by helping Afghans take control of their own, and that is what we are doing, as requested by the Afghan government and mandated by the UN," he explained.

Afghan soldiers and police were leading security for 87 per cent of their population, delivering up to 90 per cent of their own training and lead 95 per cent of operations, the diplomat said in a statement from NATO.

Rasmussen acknowledged: "We have faced tremendous challenges and there are still challenges ahead. But with our support, Afghanistan has a strong foundation to build a secure future..."

With international support, Afghanistan had already come a long way from what it used to be under the Taliban, he said, insisting there had been a positive change on economic, education, health and maternal mortality fronts. (Pajhwok)