Rasmussen confident deal reached with Afghanistan on post 14 security cooperation

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen Tuesday expressed confidence that the US will conclude bilateral security agreements with Afghanistan regarding the status of forces beyond 2014. "The Afghans know that such agreements are a prerequisite for our deployment of trainers after 2014. We stand ready to train, advise, assist the Afghan forces but of course we need a proper legal framework that covers NATO deployment to Afghanistan," he told a press conference in Brussels tonight after the end of the first day of a two-day NATO defence ministers' meeting. He announced that the Alliance will hold a major live exercise in 2015 that will involve a significant number of deployed forces on land, sea and in the air. Spain, Portugal and Italy offered to host the exercise. "From 2016 onwards, we will conduct such major live exercises on a regular basis, with a broader scope and covering the full range of Alliance missions," said the NATO chief. NATO Ministers also discussed cyber defence and concluded that the Alliance is on track in upgrading its ability to protect NATO's networks. They also discussed missile defence and NATO's program to defend the Alliance's populations, territory and forces against missile attacks from outside the Euro-Atlantic area. "As a next step in our US-led missile defence in Europe, a groundbreaking for the land-based Aegis system will take place in Romania by the end of October. This is complex work, and we are making steady progress," the Secretary General noted. Tomorrow the ministers will focus on developments in Afghanistan