Chancellor Angela Merkel made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Friday to shore up morale among Germany’s 4,200 troops as foreign forces withdraw after more than a decade of fighting.
The war is increasingly unpopular in Germany, but Merkel told troops in Kunduz province that political and economic progress was being made and that their contribution was making a difference.
“Progress is sometimes difficult, sometimes it is slower than we would like but it is essential that our military involvement is not seen in isolation and that it is a success,” she said.
Germany, which has the third-biggest troop deployment in Afghanistan after the United States and Britain, has cut numbers from 5,000 as the Nato pull-out gathers pace ahead of the end of the mission next year.
Merkel arrived in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and made a short trip to nearby Kunduz.
“She is here to support the troops, to attend briefings and to address concerns after our recent loss,” a military spokesman told AFP, referring to the death last Saturday of the first German soldier to be killed in Afghanistan in two years.