Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin paid an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Sunday as President Joe Biden’s administration faces a decision on whether to withdraw troops by a May 1 deadline, as required by a U.S. agreement with the Taliban.
Austin, the first member of Biden’s cabinet to travel to the country, met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, as well as General Scott Miller, the U.S. commander-in-chief in Afghanistan, according to the press conference that traveled with the secretary.
“I came to Afghanistan to listen and learn,” Austin said in a statement. tweet accompanied by a photo of him meeting President Ghani. The visit was ‘very helpful’ and will help inform the government’s decisions on Afghanistan, he said.
Austin flew from New Delhi to Kabul as part of a trip that included visits to Japan and South Korea.
Before arriving in Afghanistan, he told reporters in India that President Biden ‘made no decision or made any announcements about when he decided to remove US troops from Afghanistan.
Former President Donald Trump’s government signed an agreement with the Taliban last year calling for all US troops to leave Afghanistan by May 1 in exchange for the insurgents entering into peace talks with their opponents in the Afghan government and committing to To prevent al Qaeda or other extremists. of the launch of terrorist attacks from Afghanistan.
NBC News previously reported that Biden was considering keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan until November, rather than withdrawing them by the May 1 deadline.
The military has submitted several options to the White House, including withdrawing troops before or near May 1, keeping troops in the country indefinitely or keeping troops in Afghanistan for a specified period, which Biden must determine, which can be six months. include. expansion, NBC News reported.
Biden said in an interview with ABC News last week that a withdrawal from the troop “could happen, but it’s difficult.” The president said that if the departure date of the troop was delayed, it would not be ‘much longer’.
“I’m making the decision about when they go,” Biden told ABC News.
There are about 2,500 US troops still in Afghanistan. US troops have been in Afghanistan since a U.S. military overthrew the Taliban regime in 2001 for shelling al-Qaeda militants hosting the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.