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NATO likely to follow U.S. on military withdrawal from Afghanistan in September
Updated 18:25, 14-Apr-2021
CGTN
A U.S. soldier keeps watch at an Afghan National Army base in Logar Province, Afghanistan August 5, 2018. /Reuters

A U.S. soldier keeps watch at an Afghan National Army base in Logar Province, Afghanistan August 5, 2018. /Reuters

NATO will likely join the U.S. in withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan this September, German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said Wednesday. 

"We always said: we'll go in together, we'll leave together," she told ARD public television. "I am for an orderly withdrawal and that is why I assume that we (NATO) will agree to that today."

On Wednesday afternoon, NATO defense and foreign ministers will hold a video conference on the issue.

Prior to the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged that the NATO forces will leave together from Afghanistan.

"I am here to work closely with our allies, with the (NATO) secretary-general, on the principle that we have established from the start: In together, adapt together and out together," Blinken said in a televised statement at NATO headquarters.

On Tuesday, multiple U.S. media outlets reported that Washington will withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the longest war in American history that caused about 2,400 U.S. military deaths.

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to make an official announcement on Wednesday.

Read more:

Biden set to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11: reports

(With input from AFP, Reuters)

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