UK’s secretary of defense Ben Wallace said that 100 British troops will stay in Afghanistan along with the 650 US troops to protect UK’s Kabul-based embassy.
Wallace announces the remarks only days after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson officially ended his military mission in Afghanistan, in a speech in the British parliament.
Prior to that, United States had said that its troops will stay in Afghanistan until the security of the Kabul international airport is handed over to the Turkish Forces.
Ben Wallace, UK’s defense minister on his visit to the US, Pentagon, with his counterpart said that both countries were on the same track to leave Afghanistan by the end of August.
Wallace has also thanked United States forces for what they have done in Afghanistan in the past 20 years.
Ben Wallace and Llyod Austin met only hours after a milestone took place in the drawdown process of the US from Afghanistan. In Kabul RS’s longest-serving commander, General Scott Miller stepped down and devolved his role to General Frank McKenzie.
As negotiations over handing Kabul’s airport security to Turkish is going smooth between the US and Turkey, the Taliban has been opposing the move and reiterates that Turkey as a NATO member state should not have a military presence in Afghanistan.
