State Dept. Spox: ‘We Have Demonstrated We Are Able to Fulfill Our Enduring Commitments to the Afghan People’

EXCERPT:

PRICE: “We have demonstrated that we are able to fulfill our enduring commitments to the Afghan people using the various diplomatic tools at our disposal and with exceptional help from our partners like Qatar, the UAE and our European allies and others. We are grateful for that support. Of course, the international community will continue to expect that the Taliban meet the commitments they have made to the Afghan people. We are doing all of this as we continue to urgently seek the release of Mark Frerichs. We can take on all of these challenges without putting our service members at risk in an open-ended military commitment. The same is true for our partners, including NATO, which is now more purposeful than ever in the face of Russian aggression against Ukraine. As a result, we are able to focus our resources to face new global challenges, confronting Russian aggression, managing the competition with PRC, addressing shared challenges like Covid-19 and climate change, and seizing opportunities in the Indo-Pacific among other regions. For the first time in nearly 20 years, our forces are not in harm’s way in Afghanistan and we are fully focused on the challenges and opportunities that define the 21st century."