“Our presence in Afghanistan is conditional, and the Taliban must honor their commitments.” NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg stressed on February 17 that NATO troops will not withdraw from Afghanistan early.
Meanwhile, the administration of current U.S. President Biden also said it was reviewing the country’s previous peace agreement with the Taliban.
The hasty withdrawal of troops is not conducive to counter-terrorism.
The Voice of America (VOA) reported on the 18th that Stoltenberg pointed out at a video conference of NATO defense ministers held from the 17th to the 18th that NATO troops would withdraw from Afghanistan only if security conditions permit, and that according to the peace agreement reached between the United States and the Taliban last year, foreign troops withdrew from Afghanistan. Fuhan’s deadline is May 1, 2021.
At the summit, the new U.S. Secretary of Defense Austin also issued a statement saying that the current U.S. President Biden’s government is conducting a thorough review of the peace terms of the previous agreement between the United States and the Taliban to determine whether the parties have complied with the agreement and re-examine the rationality of withdrawing troops by May 1 this year.
I) assure allies that the United States will not withdraw from Afghanistan in a hurry or disorderly manner. Austin said.
In February 2020, the United States reached a peace agreement with the Taliban, in which the United States agreed to withdraw all foreign troops from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021.
In an act of good faith to promote peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government, the administration of former U.S. President Trump’s government has reduced the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan from 12,000 to 8,600 last June, and further reduced it to 2,500 by January 15 this year.
However, according to the U.S. Journal of Diplomatic Scholars on the 18th, NATO currently deploys nearly 10,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Once the U.S. military withdraws and interrupts transportation, logistics and other support, NATO allies will not be able to continue to operate in Afghanistan.
The intra-Aramedea peace talks have failed, and the situation is difficult to stabilize.
Last September, the inter-Afghanistan peace talks brokered by the U.S. government began in Qatar.
This is the first direct dialogue between the Afghan government and the Taliban since the outbreak of the Afghan war in 2001 and is also considered an important opportunity to resolve the war and conflict in Afghanistan for more than 40 years.
However, negotiations have progressed slowly for half a year, and many Afghan officials criticized the United States for giving too much to the Taliban without any assurance.
“The main problem is that the Taliban must reduce violence, negotiate in good faith, and stop supporting international terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaida.” “We’re only going to leave when the time is right,” Stoltenberg said at the Defense Secretary Summit, “The focus now is on how we can support peace talks.”
Some analysts believe that the failure of the intra-Afghanistan peace talks and the hasty withdrawal of the United States may make the “mess” of counter-terrorism impossible to end.
According to the data of the National Counter-Terrorism Center of the United States, the United States has identified about 100 terrorist organizations worldwide, of which nearly 20 terrorist organizations are active in Afghanistan, including Al-Qaeda and the extremist organization Islamic State.
It is still difficult to predict whether the Taliban will abide by the agreement with the United States and “no longer make Afghanistan a safe haven for terrorists”.
Since Biden came to power, there has been a growing number of people in U.S. policy circles calling for the government to postpone the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan or to re-negotiate an agreement with the Taliban to allow a smaller U.S. military mainly engaged in intelligence work to remain in Afghanistan.
The Afghanistan research group, composed of experts from both parties in the United States, believes that the Taliban has not met the conditions stipulated in the February 2020 agreement and recommended to postpone the withdrawal plan from Afghanistan earlier this month.
