STAFF: Excellencies, we have four questions today. Two from Afghan media and two from the international media who's traveled with the Secretary of Defense.
Can I call on Thomas Gibbons-Neff from New York Times to pose his question. Thank you.
Q: Thank you. President Ghani, could you clarify whether the negotiating team of the Taliban will include political parties in civil society or just government officials as your spokesman said a couple days ago?
And Dr. Esper, following the agreement, what is the threshold for the U.S. to strike back at the Taliban if they continue to attack Afghan national security forces?
PRESIDENT ASHRAF GHANI: No, please go ahead.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE MARK T. ESPER: With regard to any attacks on Afghan national security forces, we always reserve the right to self defense and the right to protect our Afghan partners. We have to look at each -- each on a case by case basis.
I will rely heavily on the commander we have, the superb command of General Miller, with regard to how we will act. And again, we will not take anything off the table. Our commitment is to this agreement and to the -- the terms by which we agreed to implement it and we are prepared to use force as necessary.
But our hope is that all parties will abide by their obligations and commitments under this agreement.
PRES. GHANI: Peace belongs to all Afghans. The team will represent the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and would be inclusive of civil society parties and all walks of life. We'll have a balance between generations and views.
STAFF: Thank you, sir. Mr. Idrees Ali from Reuters.
Q: Mr. President, so far your government has largely been left aside from the talks that are taking place in Doha, and there's a perception that the United States abandoned Afghanistan a couple of decades ago when the Soviets left. What makes you confident that the United States will not abandon you this time? And Mr. ...
PRES. GHANI: Well ...
Q: If I may…
PRES. GHANI: Of course, please.
Q: Mr. Secretary, there's obviously a very fragile political situation in the country. President Ghani is -- said he won the election, chief executive Abdullah, who sits behind him, said he won the election. Are you afraid that the tense political situation may sort of scurry and destroy the deal that's been worked out?
SEC. ESPER: My rule of thumb is to stay out of politics in the United States. So I'm going to stay out of politics in Afghanistan too.
PRES. GHANI: Well, first of all, may I make a correction. We've been intense discussions with the United States. President Trump honored us personally by visiting Bagram. Secretary Esper and all leading members of the U.S. government have engaged us. Secretary Pompeo's repeatedly engaged us. To say that we have been marginalized I think is totally unfair.
Two, as I stated in my written remarks, as a result of the engagement after President Trump made his famous Tweet, the conditions have changed very considerably.
The focus putting protection of violence front and center, leading for a cease fire has been the reflection of the views of our people, the condition based approach. We are fully aligned. We welcome this opportunity and our engagement is based on mutual respect and mutual interest. And it will continue to do so--to be so.
STAFF: Thank you. Mr. Mohman (sp?) from RTA.
Q: Thank you. I'm from the National Radio Television of Afghanistan. My question is addressed to the Secretary of Defense and to the general secretary of NATO. The people of Afghanistan are cautiously optimistic about the peace process because there are concerns about the implications of U.S. troops withdraws and other international forces withdraws from Afghanistan.
There is a real concern among the people that Afghanistan may God forbid return to the era of 90s to the Civil War. So how can you assure the people of Afghanistan that such a situation will not happen again? That history will not repeat itself.
SEC. ESPER: Well, I'll say -- I will say first of all that we are fully committed to supporting the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces throughout this process as far as it takes and as long as it takes.
We reserve all the rights of self defense. We will retain all the necessary capabilities and at the end of the day this will be a conditions-based processes. Again, a conditions-based process. The standard for me, for the United States, will be that Afghanistan again never becomes a threat -- a safe haven for terrorist to threaten America or the homelands of our partners. And that means retaining the capabilities throughout this process to do just that.
SECRETARY-GENERAL JENS STOLTENBERG: In the statement that 29 allies agreed today, they reiterate their commitment to Afghanistan. Their commitment to provide support, to provide training, advice and assistance, and to continue to provide for financial support.
So NATO -- NATO allies and partners are committed to Afghanistan and we have demonstrated that through 18 years of presence. And you have to remember that we are in Afghanistan to help the Afghans, but they're also in Afghanistan to help ourselves.
We are in Afghanistan because it is in our security interest to provide -- to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a safe haven for international terrorists. That's the reason why we are committed and that's the reason why any withdrawal -- any reduction of force levels will be conditions-based.
We have adjusted before. Not so many years ago we had 130,000 troops in the (inaudible) combat operation. Now we are 16,000 troops in the NATO mission showing the strength of the Afghan security forces because they are now in the lead of security in this country.
STAFF: And the last question we have from (Inaudible) Tolo TV.
Q (through translator): From Tolo News. My question (inaudible) and they are considered (inaudible) other terrorist groups in Afghanistan, who are active and they are considered as a threat, so after agreements made with the Taliban, how about fighting against the other terrorist groups, how would that be… Taliban, USA, government of Afghanistan would get together to fight against this terrorist groups, or how?
SEC. ESPER: Yes, that's a -- that's a very important point and it deserves clarification. We will continue our operations against terrorist groups such as ISIS-K to insure they are not a threat to U.S. forces, to partner forces, or to Afghan forces or the Afghan people. Those operations will continue.
STAFF: Thank you very much. That concludes here.