NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday that the new US administration's closure of Guantanamo prison will not have an impact on his force's mission in Afghanistan.
US President Barack Obama will Thursday sign an executive order for the closure of the Guantanamo prison, a symbol of his predecessor's "war on terror," a White House source said.
De Hoop Scheffer told reporters that he had taken note of Obama's position on Guantanamo and that "it will not have an effect on the NATO operations, on the NATO mission in Afghanistan.
"We will go about our business there," he said, in response to a question during a joint press conference with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
NATO leads the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is made up of more than 51,000 troops from nearly 40 countries and helps Afghan government forces fight against an escalating, Taliban-led insurgency.
On Monday, de Hoop Scheffer said NATO needs 10,000 more troops to help provide security for scheduled elections in Afghanistan this year.
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