Germany has rejected calls for its soldiers to return to Afghanistan after Taliban insurgents took Kunduz city, where German troops were deployed for a decade.
In a tweet German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said, “The reports from Kunduz and from all over Afghanistan are bitter and hurt a lot.”
“Are society and parliament prepared to send the armed forces into a war, and remain there with lots of troops for at least a generation? If we are not, then the joint withdrawal with the partners remains the right decision,” she added.
Kramp-Karrenbauer disagrees with some of her own conservative party members who want German troops to participate in an intervention against the Taliban. In her opinion, defeating insurgents would require a long and hard campaign.
The minister went to criticise former US President Donald Trump regarding the agreement he struck with the Taliban in 2020 for the American and NATO troops to leave in war-torn country, “Trump’s unfortunate deal with the Taliban was the beginning of the end.”
Earlier this year in April the United States announced plans to pull out troops by Sept. 11, and the transatlantic alliance NATO followed suit, violence has escalated as the Taliban seize territory.
Germany had the second-largest military in Afghanistan after the United States. It lost more troops in combat in Kunduz than anywhere else since World War Two.
The Taliban overran three provincial capitals including Kunduz at the weekend as it pressed an offensive since foreign troops began a withdrawal.
