Bipartisan effort
January 17, 2010
In an interview published on Sunday, January 17, with daily Bild, German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said Merkel's government will be pushing for bipartisan support to continue German troop deployments in Afghanistan.
The chancellor is said to have already met with Social Democratic Party (SPD) opposition leader Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Local media reports say the two party leaders agreed to avoid any party bickering over the Afghan mission. Since last year, Steinmeier's SPD boosted criticism over the mission.
The fact that Merkel is attempting to foster bipartisan support on this issue reduces the chances that Germany will be increasing its military presence in Afghanistan - despite being under pressure to join US President Barack Obama's troop surge in the country.
The SPD is opposed to sending more troops to the region. Instead, it would prefer to strengthen Afghan security forces through education and training.
Exit strategy
The SPD has also made it clear that it wants to know exactly when German troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan. SPD chief Sigmar Gabriel said in recent weeks that the German military must begin withdrawals by 2011.
"In the year that the United States begins to reduce its troop levels, that means Germany must also start withdrawing in 2011," said Gabriel in an interview with German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
"Until then, Germany has to train Afghan police officers and soldiers much more quickly than before."
Under German law, foreign military deployments are only allowed after parliamentary approval for fixed periods. Guttenberg told Bild that the widest parliamentary agreement on Afghanistan "is important to ensure our soldiers have backing."
Rough deployment
Currently, Germany has close to 4,400 troops stationed in northern Afghanistan.
In recent months, the country's deployment faced immense controversy over a German-ordered airstrike on two hijacked fuel tankers in the city of Kunduz in September, when up to 142 civilians are believed to have been killed.
The causalities made the already unpopular war even more unpopular among German citizens, and forced the defense minister at the time, Franz Josef Jung, to resign.
Meanwhile, German troops killed an Afghan civilian on Sunday, when two men approached a German checkpoint in a car at high speed. The soldiers fired when the vehicle showed no signs of slowing down.
The German government is expected to wait until the end of January with its decision over troop activities and levels in Afghanistan. Western countries will be meeting at the end of this month in London to discuss their joint Afghan mission.
mk/dpa/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Toma Tasovac