NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that while the alliance’s military presence in Afghanistan for 20 years had not been in vain, there are lessons they need to learn from this time.

He also said “wrongful conclusions” should not be drawn from their military presence in Afghanistan as experience garnered might come in useful in the future.

He said NATO is facing the threat of terrorist attacks and that the alliance needs to be at the forefront of this to combat any such incidents.

“Our presence in Afghanistan was not in vain; we defeated al-Qaeda; for 20 years we have prevented new terrorist attacks against our countries, organized from Afghanistan, but our presence in Afghanistan is also something that reminds us of what it means to go in with a military presence.

“We need to learn the lessons, but we should not draw wrongful conclusions from our military presence in Afghanistan. There may be future situations where we need to stand up against terror as we did among other things in Iraq and Syria when we defeated ISIS and liberated the areas under their control,” said Stoltenberg.

He went on to say that the alliance’s main goal in Afghanistan had been to defeat al-Qaeda and that over the past two decades, there have been no terrorist attacks against foreign countries that had been organized in Afghanistan.

“Now after having pulled out we must still try to safeguard that situation; that will not be easy; but it is not as if that means that it was wrong to prevent more terrorist attacks,” added Stoltenberg.

Afghans meanwhile voiced their concerns about Afghanistan’s future after the country’s largest military medical facility, in the center of Kabul, came under attack by Deash (ISIS-K) on Tuesday.

“The situation is not under our control completely, other countries interfere in our internal affairs, and they (other coutries) are responsible for all the explosions and suicide attacks,” said Mohammad Rahim, a Kabul resident.

“If Taliban (IEA) does not stop Daesh they will become stronger and will be a big threat to Afghanistan in the future,” said Shamsuddin, another Kabul resident.

This comes as India plans to meet with Afghan officials in the next week.