German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed the German parliament, the Bundestag, on Wednesday, to give her response to the chaotic events that have taken place in Afghanistan in the past 10 days, amid calls for a parliamentary enquiry.
Addressing the issue of why the events came us such a surprise to the international community, Merkel said that the Western powers had underestimated how "breathtakingly quickly the Afghan security forces would give up their resistance to the Taliban after the troop withdrawal."
In retrospect, she said, it was easy to say what should have been done, but decisions had to be made as events unfolded.
"Our goal must be to preserve as much as possible of the changes we have made in Afghanistan over the past 20 years," she said.
She said she was in favour of negotiations with the militant Islamist Taliban, as they were "now a reality in Afghanistan."
Merkel said that at present the government was concentrating "with all their might" on the evacuation operations from Kabul airport, which must be complete by August 31 when US troops plan to leave the country.
In the statement Merkel paid tribute to those who had died or suffered injuries while on active service in Afghanistan over the past two decades, revealing that one of her former bodyguards had been among the 59 German soldiers killed in the conflict.
"The developments of the last few days are terrible, they are bitter," Merkel said.
The Social Democrat parliamentary party leader Rolf Muetzenich called for the establishment of a Bundestag enquiry to investigate the deployment of the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan, in the debate following the Merkel's statement.
