Afghanistan 0
30 August 2021

President Biden announced that “our 20-year military presence in Afghanistan has ended”. Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted: “The Taliban has made a commitment to prevent terrorist groups from using Afghanistan as a base for external operations that could threaten the U.S. or our allies... We will hold them accountable to that commitment. But while we have expectations of the Taliban, that doesn’t mean we will rely on the Taliban… we’ll maintain robust counterterrorism capabilities in the region to neutralise those threats, if necessary”. Blinken further indicated that “going forward, any engagement with a Taliban-led government in Kabul will be driven by one thing only: our vital national interests”.

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