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NATO has not yet made a decision about the end of its Afghanistan mission.

This was announced by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday after deliberations with the Alliance's defense ministers.

He emphasized that the radical Islamic Taliban had not yet met the conditions for the withdrawal of NATO troops, which was promised by the end of April.

The NATO defense ministers had met since Wednesday for the first time since the new US President Joe Biden took office.

The administration of his predecessor Donald Trump had promised the Taliban a withdrawal of all foreign troops by April 30th.

Biden has put this agreement to the test and has not yet made a final decision.

After the ministers' consultations, Stoltenberg called on the Taliban via video conference to reduce violence in the country, cut ties to terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and seriously negotiate a peace solution with the government in Kabul.

NATO wants to build “as much pressure as possible” to bring the peace process to a conclusion, he said.

Almost 10,000 soldiers remain

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Since the end of the combat mission at the end of 2014, NATO has still been in Afghanistan with the "Resolute Support" mission.

It provides advice and training to the Afghan security forces and currently comprises 9,600 soldiers.

The Taliban are demanding a withdrawal, otherwise they want to go into a “great war” against NATO.

As the “framework nation” in northern Afghanistan, Germany bears responsibility.

With around 1,100 soldiers on site, Germany has the second largest contingent of troops after the USA.

Like other allies, the Bundeswehr is dependent on the air and transport capacities of the US Army.

Without this, the NATO mission could not be sustained.

The Afghan security forces alone - that is, without special forces from the USA and its allies - would not yet be able to avert further destabilization of the country.

In the meantime, NATO is expanding its training mission in Iraq.

The defense ministers of the 30 allied states approved a new plan of operations on Thursday.

Among other things, it stipulates that the advice and training of the Iraqi armed and security forces will no longer be limited to the capital region of Baghdad.

According to General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg, this could lead to the number of soldiers deployed increasing from the current 300 to around 4,000.

A combat mission is still excluded.

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Germany is currently considering providing a two- to three-digit number of soldiers for the expanded NATO deployment.

The Bundeswehr initially wants to continue to be present in Erbil, northern Iraq.

There she trains Kurdish security forces.

The NATO mission aims to put the Iraqi armed forces in a position to prevent the IS from regaining strength.

Iraqi military instructors in particular were trained for this purpose.

It is still a matter of IS not coming back, said Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday.