World News | Merkel Says It's Important to Talk to Taliban
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Chancellor Angela Merkel has stressed that Germany is focused on humanitarian aid now and on helping former local Afghan staffers who were not evacuated in the last two weeks.
Berlin, Aug 31 (AP) Chancellor Angela Merkel has stressed that Germany is focused on humanitarian aid now and on helping former local Afghan staffers who were not evacuated in the last two weeks.
Merkel said their numbers are “not 300" but “between 10,000 to 40,000.”
Germany has evacuated more than 5,000 people from Afghanistan this month, the majority of them Afghans.
She said that of those who remain, it wasn't clear how many of them want to leave Afghanistan.
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She says that while Germany doesn't have any diplomatic relations with the Taliban, it's important to talk to the militant group, also in order to get further Afghans in need of evacuation out of the country.
Merkel spoke ahead of talks on Tuesday with her Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurz in Berlin. Kurz reiterated his country's position to not take in any migrants from Afghanistan.
He said that “when it comes admission, my position in known. Nothing much has changed there. Especially because Austria has done a lot already. We have taken in a disproportionately high amount of people since 2015, we have the per-capita fourth biggest Afghan community worldwide.”
Kurz has long taken a tough approach to migration issues. Last month he said that he also would not halt the deportations of rejected asylum seekers to Afghanistan despite the situation there. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)