OREANDA-NEWS. The German government at a meeting on Wednesday, February 24, decided to extend the Bundeswehr mission in Afghanistan for another 10 months — until January 31, 2022. The current mandate for the German military to stay in Afghanistan as part of the NATO Operation «Resolute Support» expires in March. The number of Bundeswehr soldiers stationed in Afghanistan should not exceed 1,300. The decision to extend the mission has to be approved by the Bundestag.

The soldiers of the Bundeswehr were sent to Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks committed in the United States on September 11, 2001. In December of the same year, the Bundestag first gave a mandate to the German military mission under NATO command in the Hindu Kush. In December 2014, the North Atlantic Alliance ended a 13-year military operation in the country and, on January 1, 2015, launched the «Resolute Support» Mission, aimed at training Afghan government troops.

In February 2020, the United States signed an agreement with the Taliban, promising in exchange for security guarantees from the Taliban to fully withdraw it's troops from Afghanistan by mid-2021. However, this agreement did not stop the increase in violence in the country, and therefore the timing of the withdrawal of American soldiers from the country remains in question.