KABUL (Dispatches) – German troops are likely to stay on in Afghanistan as the government has agreed to extend its military mandate in the country by 10 months.
The new draft mandate still needs the approval of the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament.
The current mandate is set to expire at the end of March.
Under the draft agreed by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet, German troops would be able to stay in the war-ravaged country until January 31, 2022.
With over 1,100 troops, Germany has the second-largest contingent after the United States in NATO’s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan.
Seibert said that the maximum limit of 1,300 German troops will remain unchanged in the new mandate.
The decision comes a week after NATO said it had made "no final decision” on the future of the mission.
Several groups in German parliament, not least the liberal FDP and the far-left Die Linke, recently urged a strategy of disengagement after 20 years of military presence in Afghanistan.
The new mandate will cover the months after the September general election necessary to form a new German government.
A new decision on the German military presence will be taken by the new lawmakers.
NATO deployed forces to Afghanistan following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, which extended insecurity in Afghanistan.
The United States, under former President Donald Trump, reached an agreement with the Taliban in Qatar in February 2020, under which the U.S. and its NATO allies are expected to withdraw all troops in 14 months.
The administration of President Joe Biden, however, has said it would not commit to a full withdrawal by May.
The Taliban have warned that the longer the U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, the more troops will be killed.
Trump in his final days in office unilaterally reduced the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 2,500, the lowest since 2001.