Stoltenberg called the largest defeat of NATO 0 8

The withdrawal of NATO member states' troops from Afghanistan was the alliance's largest defeat. This was stated by former NATO Secretary General, Minister of Finance of Norway Jens Stoltenberg in an interview with the British newspaper The Sunday Times.

"This is NATO's largest defeat. But I still believe that leaving Afghanistan was the right, albeit painful decision, as many people suffered," he emphasized.

According to Stoltenberg, the Norwegian authorities wanted to see a free, democratic Afghanistan.

"But the reality is that we as NATO allies were not ready to pay the price for that to happen," the politician clarified.

The former Secretary General noted that over these 20 years, the Norwegian authorities realized that building a democratic society through the use of military force, "as they tried to do," is too heavy and ambitious a project.

Earlier, Stoltenberg recalled in his memoirs that former U.S. President Joe Biden called Volodymyr Zelensky a pain in the ass. He wrote about this while recalling the behind-the-scenes events of the alliance summit in Vilnius. According to Stoltenberg, this occurred during the discussion of the final declaration of the meeting. The American side was irritated by Kyiv's position and the wording regarding support for Ukraine. "President Biden was sitting next to me at the large table. He leaned over to me and said, 'As we say in America, he [Zelensky] is a pain in the ass,'" recalled the former NATO Secretary General.