Georgian officials welcome US-Taliban peace deal in Afghanistan
Georgian President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister have released separate statements welcoming the peace deal between the US and the Taliban aimed to end the conflict in Afghanistan. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge
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Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia and Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani have welcomed the recent agreement between the United States and the Taliban aimed to end the almost 20 years of conflict in Afghanistan.
I welcome the signing of the #peaceagreement in Afghanistan. As one of the largest and oldest contributors to the mission in #Afghanistan, Georgia applauds the steps taken toward lasting peace.
— Salome Zourabichvili (@Zourabichvili_S) February 29, 2020
The US and the Taliban came together at a signing ceremony in Doha, led by US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar yesterday, BBC reports.
Georgian PM Giorgi Gakharia has called the signing of the deal "an important moment".
Today marks an important moment. President Trump’s peace plan will bring real progress toward ending the war in Afghanistan. #Georgia will continue to stand with the US to see the agreement’s conditions are met. @realDonaldTrump
— Giorgi Gakharia (@GakhariaGiorgi) February 29, 2020
With the deal signed, the next phase is supposed to be a withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. In particular, within the first 135 days of the deal the US will reduce its forces to 8,600, while its allies will also draw down their forces proportionately.
Georgian FM David Zalkaliani has tweeted that the full implementation of the deal is of "key" importance for peace and stability on the ground.
#Georgia welcomes the signing of the agreement between the U.S. and Taliban as a historic step towards lasting peace in #Afghanistan. Full implementation is a key. Peace and stability in Afghanistan is critical for regional and global security. #AfghanPeaceProcess
— David Zalkaliani (@DZalkaliani) February 29, 2020
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance and its partners in the Resolute Support Mission will implement "conditions-based adjustments", including a reduction to their military presence.
Honoured to be in Kabul to mark the start of a new chapter for #Afghanistan. Today’s agreements are the first steps to ending decades of devastating conflict & pave the way for negotiations among Afghans. The time for peace is now. #NATO statement: https://t.co/ZZqspy6qRN pic.twitter.com/wWIYX149b6
— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) February 29, 2020
The Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan was launched in 2015 and involves about 17,000 personnel from nearly 40 NATO member and partner countries.
- Georgia is the largest non-NATO contributor to mission Resolute Support with 870 troops.
- The Resolute Support mission was a follow-on task from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission, to which Georgia contributed about 750 troops.
- Thirty-two Georgian soldiers have been killed and more than 430 received injuries while serving in Afghanistan.
US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper stated yesterday that "since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the international community and government of Afghanistan have united together in the fight against threats to international peace and security".
Along with our NATO allies and partners, we have been committed to ensuring that Afghanistan never again becomes a safe-haven for terrorists to threaten our homelands", he said.
US President Donald Trump congratulated the Afghan people with the peace deal, hoping the negotiations will be successful at the end.
President @realDonaldTrump provides an update on bringing troops home from Afghanistan: pic.twitter.com/wfeOSna7AY
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 29, 2020
President Trump said, despite the US' "tremendous success" in the killing of terrorists in Afghanistan, "it is time after all these years to go and bring up people back home".
A company of Georgian soldiers of the second infantry brigade have joined Nato’s Resolute Support mission in northern Afghanistan to provide security to Camp Marmal, a base of the German Bundeswehr forces.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says that Afghanistan is no longer a shelter for terrorists and that the achievement of this goal would have been unimaginable without Georgia.
Brigadier General Nikoloz Janjgava, who serves as First Deputy Chief of Georgian Defence Forces, will become the first Georgian to work as Deputy Chief of Staff for Security Assistance in NATO's Resolute Support peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.
The company of Georgian soldiers of the first infantry brigade has completed their tour in the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan and returned home without losses today. General Aleksandre Kiknadze and Commander of the first infantry brigade Vice –Lieutenant Roland Dzneladze met them at the airport.
Georgian peacekeeping troops are undergoing their final exercises before deploying to NATO's Resolute Support Mission in Georgia for the first time, with the Mission Readiness Exercise testing their preparedness for serving in the next round of tours in Afghanistan.
Ten more Georgian soldiers have tested positive for the coronavirus in Afghanistan and have been transported home to Georgia by the German Air Force earlier today. Twenty-eight other Georgian soldiers in the NATO Resolute Support Mission tested positive for the virus on July 10. Eight of the 28 soldiers, who underwent treatment in Gori hospital of central Georgia, have already recovered. The Georgian Defence Ministry says that all the 38 soldiers belong to one cluster that an Afghan personnel was the source of the infection.
Georgian officials have expressed solidarity with Austria in the aftermath of a deadly terrorist attack in the capital Vienna last night that killed at least four people and injured 17.