BRUSSELS — The agreement reached between the United States and Iraq on Sept. 25 to gradually conclude the mission of the US-led Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) highlights the importance of NATO's ongoing mission to Iraq, tasked with advising and assisting Iraqi security agencies on capacity building.

"The Iraqis want to adapt to new systems and are very eager in pushing forward towards partnership with NATO," said Lieutenant General Lucas Schreurs, commander of NATO Mission Iraq (NMI), from Baghdad, speaking to Al-Monitor at NATO Headquarters in Brussels via a secure video link. "We feel [their] desire to learn more from NATO and implement that into their own systems."

NMI is a noncombat mission, unlike the CJTF, the global coalition established in 2014 to combat ISIS alongside Iraqi troops. Launched in 2018 following a request from Baghdad, NMI currently consists of several hundred military and civilian advisers and support staff, with all 32 members of the alliance, plus partners Austria and Australia, contributing personnel and funding.

In February 2021, following another request by the Iraqi government, NATO defense ministers decided to increase the size of the mission and expand training activities to include more Iraqi security institutions and areas beyond Baghdad. Subsequently, in August 2023, the North Atlantic Council, NATO's main political decision-making body, decided to extend the scope of NMI to include advisory and capacity-building activities in support of the Iraqi Interior Ministry and the Iraqi Federal Police.