The commander of NATO's mission to train Afghanistan's security forces has warned it will need years of support from foreign powers and the Afghan government to be a long-term success.
Lieutenant-General William Caldwell indicated that several thousand international trainers could be needed to support the mission until at least 2020 in an interview with AFP.
All foreign combat troops will leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014 in a process that started last month and will require the Afghan army and police to play an ever-greater role in fighting the Taliban insurgency.
But Caldwell also said that President Hamid Karzai's government needed to make progress on governance and justice in Afghanistan to help sustain the efforts of NTM-A (NATO Training Mission Afghanistan).
