Summit meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization opened in Chicago on Sunday. It's being attended by leaders from NATO member countries and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai. Representatives from Japan and other countries are also attending the meeting.In his opening address, US President Barack Obama said that he expects NATO partners to agree on a plan to end the Afghan war by the end of 2014.
Obama stressed that NATO forces in Afghanistan will complete the transfer of security to the Afghan government and withdraw their combat units by the end of 2014.Currently, 130,000 international troops, led by the US military, are part of the NATO mission in Afghanistan.
There are concerns that the withdrawal of foreign combat troops could worsen security in the country amid continued terrorist attacks by Taliban insurgents.But NATO leaders are facing domestic calls for an early pull-out from Afghanistan. They are being forced to cut financial spending as the number of troops killed or injured in the country continues to rise.
The leaders are expected to emerge from their talks with concrete plans on how to improve the capability of Afghan security forces and how to assist the country financially after NATO's withdrawal.
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