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Germany: NATO may need to stay longer in Afghanistan
Reuters: NATO troops may need to stay in Afghanistan for a longer period and any decision should be based on the situation on the ground, Germany’s defense minister said on Thursday in an implicit criticism of U.S. withdrawal plans.
Despite the recapture of the strategic northern city of Kunduz from Taliban militants, the intense fighting has raised questions over whether NATO-trained Afghan forces were ready to go it alone now most foreign combat troops have left.
“We’ll need to look at how we go forward and whether we should stay longer,” Ursula von der Leyen said as she arrived for a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. “The developments in Kunduz show that the way that we have walked together with the Afghans … that we have to walk on.”
The deadly bombing of a hospital in Kunduz has also put renewed attention on NATO’s future in the country that has received more than $100 billion in international aid but whose long-term stability is still in question.
Germany has long seen its troop presence under NATO as a stabilization mission and stresses the focus is on civil reconstruction, meant to reassure a German public that remains deeply uncomfortable with the idea of its troops in combat, more than six decades after the end of World War Two.
“I will appeal today that we don’t organize the withdrawal from Afghanistan according to a rigid timetable, but that we analyze the situation there and coordinate the withdrawal accordingly step by step,” von der Leyen said.
“This means that we put the responsibility into the Afghans’ hands in a way that they are actually capable to keep their country stable.”
Germany, which had 1,900 troops stationed in Kunduz at the height of its mission there, has reduced its presence but still has 870 soldiers in the region.
Defense ministers meeting in Brussels discussed a timetable for the mission significantly beyond 2016, a NATO source said.
Von der Leyen has warned for months about a hasty withdrawal and was uncomfortable with U.S. President Barack Obama’s timetable for bringing troops home by the end of next year, leaving 1,000 U.S. soldiers in Kabul.
U.S. Army General John Campbell, who commands the NATO troops in Afghanistan, said he supported calls for drawing down force numbers at a slower pace, citing multiple threats from Islamic State militants and other radical groups.
Officials at the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) say 7,000 incomplete projects of the World Bank are at risk of destruction in Afghanistan. They call on the World Bank to resume the work of these projects.
According to them, discussions have been held with the World Bank about these projects, but there has been no result yet.
“7,000 incomplete projects are being destroyed, and if the work is not started, these projects will be destroyed. We ask the World Bank to resume the work of these projects as soon as possible,” said Noorul Hadi Adel, the spokesperson of MRRD.
Meanwhile, members of the private sector also ask international institutions to resume their work in Afghanistan.
According to the officials of this sector, with the start of these projects, job opportunities will be provided for thousands of people in the country.
“These projects create employment for our people and the country will grow a lot,” said Mirwais Hajizadeh, a member of the private sector.
However, economic experts stated if the work of these projects does not start soon, they will be destroyed and the investments made in them will be wasted.
Ten people have been killed and six others injured by floods in Helmand province in the past week, local officials said on Friday.
According to officials, seven of those were members of the same family, and they were killed in Kajaki district last night.
“Most of the people moved from vulnerable areas to high lands and mountains, and thanks Allah the number of casualties is low,” Sher Mohammad Vahdat, the head of information of the Directorate of Information and Culture in Helmand, said adding rescue teams and security forces have been dispatched to help people.
It is said that the telecommunication system has also been disrupted due to the effect of floods in Kajaki district. Floods have also destroyed thousands of acres of agricultural land.
Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, met with the Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in New Delhi and discussed issues related to Afghanistan, it was announced on Thursday.
During the meeting, Otunbayeva thanked India for “its critical humanitarian support and longstanding friendship for the Afghan people” and discussed the importance of regional and international cooperation to address prevailing challenges in Afghanistan, UNAMA said on X.
Jaishankar also said on X that the sides exchanged views on the current situation in Afghanistan.
“Underlined that India has provided wheat, medicines, pesticides and school supplies. Appreciate the role of UN agencies as partners in these endeavors,” he said.
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