Germany’s parliament has approved a one-year extension of its military mandate for Afghanistan, allowing the country’s first major postwar troop deployment to continue operations until March 31, 2020.
The approval allows the unified armed forces of Germany, the Bundeswehr, to keep up to 1,300 soldiers in the country as part of NATO’s Resolute Support mission to advise and assist Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) – which are mostly deployed in the north of Afghanistan.
German Ambassador to Afghanistan Peter Prugel in a tweet Friday said based on the poll, majority of voters agreed to extending timeline for its military services in Afghanistan, as contributing efforts to NATO’s Resolute Support program.
“…With a vast majority of 440 votes (202 no, 28 abst) German @Bundestag has extended Germany’s military mandate in contribution to #NATO’s @ResoluteSupport Train, Assist and Advise Mission in #AFG,” said Prugel in a tweet.
Committed to peace & stability in #Afghanistan: With a vast majority of 440 votes (202 no, 28 abst) German @Bundestag has extended Germany's military mandate in contribution to #NATO's @ResoluteSupport Train, Assist and Advise Mission in #AFG https://t.co/esPgGHsiXR via @dpa_intl
— Peter Prügel (@GermanAmbAFG) March 22, 2019
The mission has been extended with virtually the same mandate as in past years, though recent suggestions from Washington that the United States may draw down its presence have provoked some uncertainty among NATO allies.
Fritz Felgentreu, a lawmaker from Germany’s Social Democrats, urged the deployment to continue but warned that if the US were to leave prematurely, the Bundeswehr would be expected to depart as well, Quoted by dpa.international.
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