The Biden-Harris Administration on Friday submitted to Congress the U.S. President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Budget request of $752.9 billion for national defense, $715 billion of which is for the Department of Defense (DoD) – of which $3.3 billion is earmarked for Afghanistan. According to the budget report, the FY 2022 Defense Budget submission reflects Biden’s priorities to end the […]

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in a released statement on Friday has called for greater support from the international community for Afghanistan’s people, including those displaced within its borders and refugees seeking safety outside the country. The appeal comes at the end of a four-day visit by UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, Raouf Mazou, who was on […]

A Turkish garrison will be deployed near Kabul airport and 600 US marines and an unspecified number of troops could be deployed to guard Washington’s embassy, according to a report. Hundreds of foreign troops will remain in Afghanistan as part of US plans to prevent a Taliban capture of the capital, The Sun reported on Wednesday. A Turkish garrison will […]

“If such a step is taken, then the responsibility for all the misfortunes and difficulties lies upon those who commit such mistakes.” Since U.S. President Joe Biden announced on April 14 that the United States would fully withdraw from Afghanistan by September 2021, there has been discussion — among regional observers and, according to reports, among diplomats — about the […]

Afghanistan’s National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib and his U.S. counterpart Jake Sullivan discussed security and counterterrorism cooperation during a phone call on Thursday. The National Security Council tweeted that “NSA Sullivan reiterated American support for ANDSF, development assistance, and [the need for] peace in Afghanistan.” Sullivan in turn tweeted that he had discussed a “strong and enduring U.S.-Afghanistan partnership” with […]

Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was on Tuesday critical of US President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces in Afghanistan by September 11 and warned that this decision is not underpinned by a clear plan to mitigate the risks once troops have withdrawn. Addressing the U.S. Senate, McConnell said Biden’s decision was “dangerous, wishful thinking”. He said the decision […]

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said this week that it has “completed between 16-25 percent of the entire retrograde process.” CENTCOM said in a statement United States Department of Defense has retrograded the equivalent of approximately 160 C-17 loads of material out of Afghanistan and has turned over more than 10,000 pieces of equipment to the Defense Logistics Agency for […]

The Government of Pakistan, with the support of UNHCR, has launched a nationwide verification exercise for 1.4 million Afghan refugees during which new smartcards will be issued. The Documentation Renewal and Information Verification Exercise, or DRIVE for short, was inaugurated at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Islamabad by the Federal Minister for SAFRON, His Excellency Mehboob Sultan. The UNHCR Representative, Noriko […]

For much of the past couple of decades, Afghanistan has been a rare exception to the strategic competition between India and China in South Asia. New Delhi never believed it could be the preeminent power in Afghanistan, unlike in other nearby countries like Sri Lanka and Nepal. Following the United States’ invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, India was happy to […]

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai said Afghans are being used against each other by external forces and that Pakistan wants to exert strategic influence in Afghanistan through the Taliban. In an interview with Germany’s weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, Karzai said: “I realized early into my tenure as president that this war is not our conflict, and we Afghans are […]