KABUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2020) Afghanistan has enough resources to stop relying on foreign troops, First Deputy Minister of Defense Shah Mahmood Miakhel told Sputnik.
"In the past, there were 120,000� foreign troops in Afghanistan, but now we have our own 400,000-500,000 troops, so the reliance on foreign forces in terms of human resources has decreased. The operations that were previously planned by foreigners are now planned by our own forces and the equipment sector is also moving steadily, with no shortage," the deputy minister said.
The withdrawal of foreign troops should be done in a responsible manner, so that the current system would not collapse and the country would not go back to civil war, Miakhel said.
"The big change is that now that we are on our feet, that is, 96 percent of the war we plan and carry out on our own, and a capacity has been created between the security and defense forces, so that is a big change," the deputy minister said.
According to the latest media reports, the United States is planning to cut military presence from 4,500 to 2,500 in Afghanistan. The gradual withdrawal of the US troops was one of the conditions in the US-Taliban agreement, which was signed in February.
