Germany to Set Timeframe for Withdrawal from Afghanistan

The cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkle has backed the extension of the country's military presence in Afghanistan. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet has decided to back an extension of Germany's military mission in Afghanistan to January 31, 2012 and set a 2011 timetable for troop withdrawals, Bloomberg reported.

The ministers made the decision Wednesday and lawmakers will vote on it later this month.

Germany has the third largest military contingent in Afghanistan after the United States and the UK. Currently, there are 4,877 German troops in the country, stationed mostly in the north, where the Taliban insurgency has increased the number of attacks on soldiers.

Merkel has vowed on the start of handing over tasks to Afghan authorities by the end of 2011.

"The government is confident it will be able to reduce the presence of the military in the process of handing over security responsibility from the end of 2011," the text of the draft bill, presented on Wednesday, said.

The text also adds that if the security conditions permit it, Germany will use "any allowable latitude for a reduction as early as possible."

In November, NATO members, including Germany, embraced a target date, set by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, to hand security over to his forces by the end of 2014.

However, NATO Secretary General Andres Fogh Rasmussen has stated that all 130,000 troops will stay "as long as it takes to finish the job."

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