On Wednesday, President Joe Biden officially announced that the U.S. will fully withdraw its troops from Afghanistan on May 1. NATO also announced it would follow suit and withdraw its troops in the coming months.
Biden announced the withdrawal on April 14 in the White House Treaty Room, where former President George W. Bush Jr. announced his troop deployment to Afghanistan to fight terrorists in October 2001.
President Biden: “I have decided that it is time to end America’s longest war and it is time for American troops to come home.”
Official figures show that the current U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan is about 2,500, and White House officials have previously revealed that all U.S. troops will be out of Afghanistan by Sept. 11 this year, delaying the plan to withdraw all troops by May 1, as set by former President Trump. But Biden has no problem with inheriting Trump’s policy of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.
U.S. President Joe Biden: “When I took office, I inherited a formally negotiated diplomatic agreement between the U.S. (Trump) administration and the Taliban that all U.S. troops would be out of Afghanistan by May 1, 2021.
President Biden: “In order to comply with this agreement and to preserve our national interests, the United States will withdraw its last troops after May 1 of this year.”
On the issue of troop presence in Afghanistan, Biden has long held a skeptical position, and the announcement of withdrawal was not a surprise. And after taking office, Biden adjusted his foreign policy to emphasize the greater challenges posed by the Chinese Communist Party and Russia, which also led to speculation about whether Biden’s withdrawal was related to strengthening military deployment in the Indo-Pacific.
But there are also views that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan has increased the risk of the Taliban regaining power. Central Intelligence Agency Director (CIA) Burns also admitted that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the intelligence services will be weakened by the operational capabilities.
However, the U.S. withdrawal has the support of NATO allies. On the same day, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced a simultaneous withdrawal from Afghanistan with the United States.
NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg: “In light of the U.S. decision to withdraw, NATO foreign ministers and defense ministers discussed the way forward today, and I have decided that we will begin withdrawing NATO assistance forces by May 1.”
Although Biden’s deadline for withdrawal does not adhere to the provisions of the Trump administration’s agreement with the Taliban, it is not expected to trigger an overreaction from the Taliban because it is only an appropriate delay.
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