INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SECURITY AND DEFENSE COOPERATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN & AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION AND THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANSTAN ON THE

摘要

On September 30, 2014, Afghanistan signed agreements with the United States and NATO providing for U.S. and NATO military presences in Afghanistan following termination in December 2014 of the post-9/11 U.S. "Operation Enduring Freedom" (OEF) and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) military missions. As was the case in ISAF, it is expected that the United States will provide the bulk of personnel implementing the non-combat NATO-led "Resolute Support Mission" (RSM) beginning in January 2015. In order to ensure that all U.S. and NATO forces operate under essentially identical regimes, the U.S.-Afghanistan Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) and NATO-Afghanistan status of forces agreement (SOFA) largely overlap in content and terminology, were developed and negotiated in close coordination, and are expected to be implemented in harmony with each other. Certain variations nonetheless derive from differences between the U.S. and NATO missions and the fact that the SOFA is an umbrella agreement applicable to a number of independent sovereign participants.