Belgian soldiers to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2021

Belgium’s military contingent in Afghanistan, consisting of some 70 troops currently deployed as part of a training, advising, and assisting mission with the Afghan armed forces, will return to the country next year, defence minister Ludivine Dedonder said on Saturday.

"We're preparing for our withdrawal,” she said in an interview published by the Het Belang van Limburg newspaper. “This will happen sometime in 2021."

"We cannot just leave, agreements must be reached with our allies,” Dedonder added. “The simple evacuation of the equipment will take three months." The defence minister is due to present the plan for military operations for 2021 to parliament and then to the Council of Ministers this week.

In her monthly report to the House Defence Committee, the minister already announced that "with regard to Afghanistan, the defence department is planning a phased and conditional withdrawal of Nato's Resolute Support (RSM) mission, in line with the expected decisions of the North Atlantic Council (CAN)."

"The practical withdrawal of Belgian units will be done in close coordination with our German partners," she added. According to the most recent figures provided by the Defence department, just over 70 Belgian military personnel are deployed in Afghanistan, mainly in Mazar-i-Sharif in the north of the country, under German command.

The RSM mission consists of 11,000 troops, but the United States has decided to reduce its contingent from 5,000 to 2,500 by 15 January, five days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, after an agreement was reached with Taliban insurgents in February.

The timetable set out in this agreement provides for a complete departure of troops in mid-2021 but based on conditions that many observers are not confident will be met at this stage, including the cessation of hostilities by Taliban forces. Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday called on the Taliban for a full ceasefire and announced that Allied defence ministers will have "difficult decisions" to make at their next meeting in February.