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Germany's Steinmeier proposes Afghan pull-out talks
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 22 - 08 - 2009


German Foreign Minister
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is bidding to oust Angela Merkel as
chancellor of Germany in an election next month, said he wanted
a timetable for a military pull-out from Afghanistan, according to Reuters.
Steinmeier, a member of the Social Democrats (SPD) who share
power with Merkel's conservatives, said once it became clear who
would lead Afghanistan after last Thursday's election there,
talks should begin over how long foreign troops should stay.
"We need to agree with the new Afghan president...how long
international troops should remain in Afghanistan," he said at
the sidelines of an election event in Dortmund on Saturday.
Merkel this week tried to quash a public debate about
pulling troops out of Afghanistan that has grown louder as
violence surged.
Although the issue has so far not played a big part in the
run-up to Germany's Sept. 27 federal election, polls show most
voters want the 4,200 German troops in Afghanistan as part of a
six-year-old NATO mission to return home.
The ruling coalition agreed last October to extend a
parliamentary mandate for participation in the NATO mission by
14 months instead of the usual 12 in the hope of preventing
debate over the deployment from colouring the election race.
Recent violence has prompted prominent political voices in
Germany, including a former defence minister from Merkel's
party, to press the government for a pull-out plan.
Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung, a party ally of Merkel's,
said on Thursday that he expected German troops to stay in
Afghanistan for another five to 10 years and dismissed calls for
troop cuts once the Afghan election was over.


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