Press Releases

November 15, 2006

German Troops Will Not be Transferred within Afghanistan

Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed her opposition to a transfer of German troops from the North to the South of Afghanistan.

The Federal Republic of Germany has assumed responsibility for the North, and nothing will change in that respect, she clarified.

A transfer of forces from northern Afghanistan to the southern part of the country would endanger the peaceful development in the northern provinces. Only in cases of emergency could individual assistance be sent to the South, according to the federal chancellor.

The Federal Government is not only relying on the military component. Development aid, creation of institutions, and assistance for the Afghan police are all an integral part of the support services. This overall concept also entails fighting cultivation of illicit drug crops, Merkel added.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer had called for improving the operational capability of the ISAF protection force in Afghanistan. Without naming Germany, he called for the lifting of restrictions which individual states have placed on their deployed forces.

Selective Deployments in the South

The German Bundestag voted to extend the ISAF mandate in late September. The new Afghanistan concept presented by the Federal Government was thoroughly debated at that time, and it was made clear that Kabul and the North would remain the theater of operation.

The decision of the German Bundestag also allows for the possibility that German soldiers may be deployed in other regions for a limited period of time and on a selective basis. Whether and if that occurs "is always to be decided politically in Berlin," said Deputy Government Spokesman Thomas Steg.

Currently, 21 communications experts are located in the South of the county and will be withdrawn by mid-December. The German Air Force is furthermore undertaking transport flights in southern regions as part of the mandate.

The ISAF contingent for Afghanistan currently has an overall strength of approximately 20,000 troops from 37 nations. Germany is providing close to 3,000 members of the German Armed Forces, roughly 15 percent of the ISAF troops.

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