A new joint statement from the United States, Russia, and China expresses their mutual agreement on the general framework of the withdrawal of foreign (i.e., NATO) troops from Afghanistan.



The general idea is that the US and allied forces would leave Afghanistan as part of a peace deal, which would come with a commitment from the Taliban to keep ISIS and al-Qaeda out of the country.



These are the terms which were already reported to have been coming out of US-Taliban talks, and the State Department’s own statement said the other nations support an “orderly and responsible withdrawal of foreign troops.”



Negotiating the specifics beyond this framework, including timing, has yet to be done, and US efforts to get the Taliban talking with the Afghan government are on hold after Afghan officials failed to show for last week’s meeting.



Getting Russia on board with this deal is particularly important, as Russia has long feared that the inevitable NATO defeat, and withdrawal from Afghanistan was going to destabilize the region, and threaten some of Russia’s close allies, former Soviet states in the vicinity.

Author: Jason Ditz Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz