With the security challenges worsening in Afghanistan, there are increasing concerns from the United States and its NATO partners as well as regional players such as China and Russia. As the Middle East is being embroiled in complicated multi-facet crises, Afghanistan's specific situation and its future stability is getting more important for most of the major Western and regional actors that have been stakeholders of the Afghan conflict in the past over a decade or regional actors who are gradually becoming engaged with Afghanistan's issues.

In past fourteen years of the conflict, Afghanistan has been more important for the United States and other NATO nations contributing forces in the war. However, many relatively new players with minimal role in the past fourteen years of the war in Afghanistan are now emerging in the conflict in Afghanistan. Despite that, there seem no major disengagement from NATO and the United States as it was expected before the drawdown of US forces before 2014. According to the reports, US president Barack Obama called on all NATO member states to support Afghanistan and help stabilizing the country.

After a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Obama said all NATO members should continue providing training and other supports for Afghanistan after the alliance's combat mission ended in 2014. The US president said that NATO officials would consider how to better support Afghanistan's National Security Forces (ANSF) to do their job right. The comments are coming as the embattled Afghan army and police forces are struggling to fight the new threats from the insurgency waging a deadly offensive this year.

Recently at a meeting of NATO member states in Turkey, NATO member states agreed to continue a military-civilian mission of the alliance beyond 2016. It is expected the NATO members will further discuss the current Resolute Support mission and the newly agreed mission beyond 2016. The recent pledges and commitments from the United States and NATO alliance is indicating the West's wariness about a possible disengagement from Afghanistan affairs and its consequences for the country as its needs support of its international backers more than ever. As relations between Afghanistan and its Western supports strained during last years of President Karzai's ruling, the United States and NATO allies seemed increasingly frustrated with Afghanistan's developments and were expected to try to quickly disengage from Afghanistan once their combat mission ended. It was feared the funding from the international community would dry up with the conclusion of the NATO combat mission and drawdown of the American troops from Afghanistan. However, with the efforts of the National Unity Government (NUG) to repair the relations with the West and woo their supports, now the United States and other NATO member countries seem to be cautious in ending their role in Afghanistan. With a new era in relations between Afghanistan's NUG and its western supporters, the United States agreed this year to delay withdrawal of thousands of its troops from Afghanistan that were scheduled to leave the country by end of 2015. In the meantime, the US has signaled hints to keep a residual force in Afghanistan for training purposes while originally Washington was planning to draw all forces from the country by end of 2016 except keeping a small contingent for protecting diplomatic premises.

More importantly, when the leaders of the NUG were visiting the US this year, the United States announced it would ensure continued funding for the ANSF at least until 2017. The latest decision of NATO for a military-civilian mission in Afghanistan for the next decade also came as a major positive development for the West's continued engagement in Afghanistan's security in the upcoming decade. There were major factors for change of the West's approach for maintaining a more robust presence in Afghanistan than they planned before 2014. The first important factor was the NUG taking power in Afghanistan which quickly managed to improve relations with the West.

The second is perhaps the gravity of the chaotic situation in the Middle East and the growing insecurity in Afghanistan. This helped the US and its NATO partners to quickly realize the urgency of the situation for today's Afghanistan that has become a legacy of the NATO in the world. There were revitalized concerns for the US and NATO about what will happen in Afghanistan while a number of Middle Eastern countries are being lost to wars and chaos and as new players such as the Islamic State group are emerging on the ground. The has been a said 'pivot' in US policy to the Far East, while in practice the United States seems itself increasingly unable of disengaging from its previous war legacies such as Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its spheres of dominance such as the Middle East. However, a key issue is the competing roles of the West with regional players such as China and Russia. China has increasingly been engaging in Afghanistan's peace and reconstruction efforts as the country has set an eye for playing a role in ending the long-lasting conflict in its neighboring Afghanistan. Afghanistan has also been increasingly interested in enhanced ties with China as its sees a potential for Beijing to help ending the conflict and reconstructing the war-ravaged nation. Former president Hamid Karzai, who is still back and forth in Western and regional capitals with attempt to keep influence in the Afghanistan politics, told in a televised interview with China state media that China can play an important role in Afghanistan. He asserted that the anti-insurgency war in Afghanistan cannot be won without cooperation from regional countries.

This is while Russia is also finding renewed interests in Afghanistan's security due the prospective of security in the Central Asian States. The Central Asian States as well as Russia have been alarmed with the worsening security in Northern Afghanistan. However, due to crises in Ukraine and the strained relations between the West and Russia, there has not been a cooperative environment between the West and Russia over the common concerns in Afghanistan. Still, there is space for the two major sides to cooperate in Afghanistan for saving the country as well as protecting the neighboring central Asian states. For the government of Afghanistan, the competing approach of the Western powers, neighboring countries and other regional players in Afghanistan is an opportunity. And it must seize it efficiently.