US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Thursday to defend the Afghan leaders and a skeptical population. President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw all US troops from the country and end the longest war that the government of Washington has delivered.
THE DEFENSE SECRETARY MET WITH THE AFGHAN PRESIDENT
Blinken met with the President of Afghanistan, Ahsraf Ghani, the director general of the government, Abdullah Abdullah, and members of civil society, the day after Biden’s announcement that the 2,500 American soldiers still in Afghanistan would be home for the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks that led to the US invasion.
NATO made a similar announcement immediately, noting that the roughly 7,000 non-US troops deployed to the country would be withdrawing in the coming months.
That will put an end to the foreign military presence, which has been a reality for a generation of Afghans already scarred by more than 40 years of conflict.
Blinken tried to assure Afghan leaders that the withdrawal did not represent a break in their bilateral relationship.
“I wanted to demonstrate with my visit the continued commitment of the United States to the Islamic republic and the people of Afghanistan,” Blinken told Ghani, during their meeting at the presidential palace in Kabul. “The relationship is changing, but the relationship itself remains.”
“We respect the decision and we are adjusting our priorities,” Ghani told Blinken, expressing his gratitude for the sacrifices of the US troops.
Despite billions of dollars in US aid, 20 years after the invasion, Afghanistan has a poverty rate of 52%, according to the World Bank.
That means that more than half of the 36 million Afghans live on less than $ 1.90 a day. It is also considered one of the worst countries in the world to be a woman, according to the Georgetown Institute for Women’s Security and Peace.
For many Afghans, the last two decades have been disappointing. Corruption has dominated successive governments and powerful warlords have accumulated wealth and well-armed militias.
Many Afghans fear that the chaos will escalate when the United States withdraws.
The Donald Trump administration reached an agreement with the Taliban last year, according to which the US withdrawal was to be completed by May 1. Although Biden will miss that deadline, which has angered Taliban leaders, his plans call for starting the withdrawal on May 1. NATO’s withdrawal will begin the same day.
Peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government are stalled, although they are expected to resume this month in Istanbul.