The withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan is ahead of schedule, the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, said on May 27 during a hearing in the US Congress on military spending for the 2022 fiscal year.
"As you know, President [US President Joe Biden] has ordered the withdrawal of [troops from Afghanistan] by September. I can report to you that the withdrawal is proceeding according to plan, in fact, with a slight advance, " Austin said. The session was broadcast on [...] the Congress website.
In February 2020, in Qatar, the United States and the radical Taliban movement (banned in Russia) signed the first peace agreement in more than 18 years of war. The Taliban guaranteed that they would not use the territory of Afghanistan for actions that pose a threat to the security of the United States and its allies.
The agreement also provided for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan in 14 months and the beginning of an inter-Afghan dialogue after the exchange of prisoners.
On April 14, 2021, US President Joe Biden announced the beginning of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan on May 1.
On April 29, the United States confirmed the beginning of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. According to the assistant to the American leader for national security, Jake Sullivan, Washington has achieved the goals set at the beginning of the operation in Afghanistan, which, as he noted, were to investigate the attack on the United States 20 years ago.
On April 30, the participants of the expanded "troika" (Russia, the United States, China, and Pakistan) on the settlement of the situation in Afghanistan held consultations on the Afghan settlement. Following the meeting, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a joint statement of the parties, which spoke about the final withdrawal of the US military by September 11, 2021 and the expectation of the Taliban movement to fulfill its counter-terrorism obligations.
