Britain will withdraw nearly all its troops from Afghanistan following the U.S. plan to withdraw its troops by Sept. 11, 2021, it has been reported.
President Joe Britain has drawn up plans to hand over control of the academy in Kabul where troops help to train Afghan soldiers to the government.
There are about 750 British soldiers in Afghanistan who would struggle without U.S. support because of the reliance on U.S. bases and infrastructure, according to the Times.
Biden plans to withdraw the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021, 20 years to the day after the al Qaeda attacks that triggered America's longest war, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
The disclosure of the plan came on the same day that the U.S. intelligence community released a gloomy outlook for.
Afghanistan, forecasting "low" chances of a peace deal this year and warning that its government would struggle to hold the Taliban insurgency at bay if the U.S.-led coalition withdraws support.
Biden's decision would miss a May 1 deadline for withdrawal agreed to with the Taliban by his predecessor Donald Trump. The insurgents had threatened to resume hostilities against foreign troops if that deadline was missed.
But Biden would still be setting a near-term withdrawal date, potentially allaying Taliban concerns.
The Democratic president will publicly announce his decision on Wednesday, the White House said. A senior Biden administration official said the pullout would begin before May 1 and could be complete well before the Sept. 11 deadline.
Significantly, it will not be subject to further conditions, including security or human rights.
"The president has judged that a conditions-based approach, which has been the approach of the past two decades, is a recipe in staying in Afghanistan forever," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in a briefing with reporters.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are expected to discuss the decision with NATO allies in Brussels on Wednesday, sources said.
Biden's decision suggests he has concluded that the U.S. military presence will no longer be decisive in achieving a lasting peace in Afghanistan, a core Pentagon assumption that has long underpinned American troop deployments there.
"There is no military solution to the problems plaguing Afghanistan, and we will focus our efforts on supporting the ongoing peace process," the senior administration official said.
