Washington. June 20. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar discussed issues related to the diplomatic presence in Afghanistan in a telephone conversation, the Pentagon press service reported.
Austin and Akar "held a conversation to discuss issues of bilateral cooperation and maintaining a continuous diplomatic presence in Afghanistan," the statement said.
"The Secretary (Austin - IF) confirmed the importance of the long-standing relationship between the United States and Turkey in the field of defense and thanked the (Turkish - IF) Minister for constant communication and cooperation on peace and security issues," the Pentagon said.
As reported, the Turkish military will play a leading role in ensuring the security of the Kabul airport after the end of the NATO mission in Afghanistan, US and Turkish Presidents Joe Biden and Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed.
"Biden and Erdogan agreed that they would work together for this," Bloomberg quoted national Security adviser Jake Sullivan as saying.
Earlier, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced Ankara's proposal to secure the Kabul airport after the withdrawal of US troops.
In May, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, Mark Milley, said that the United States and its NATO allies linked the diplomatic presence in Afghanistan to ensuring the security of the Kabul airport.
"We are working through the details of how to secure the airport, how to support the Afghan military guarding the airport, and which countries are willing to contribute to that," Milli told reporters.
He added that "this is one of the keys to maintaining a diplomatic presence" in Afghanistan.
The leadership of the Afghan Taliban movement (banned in Russia) opposed Ankara's proposal to guard the Kabul airport, saying that Turkey should also withdraw troops in accordance with the 2020 agreement on the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
"Turkey has been part of the NATO forces for the past 20 years, so they must withdraw from Afghanistan on the basis of the agreement that we signed with the United States on February 29, 2020," the Turkish newspaper Sabah quoted the Taliban representative in Doha, Suhail Shaheen, as saying.
U.S. forces and their NATO allies have begun to withdraw from Afghanistan. It is planned that this process will be completed before September 11, 2021.
