The German government has extended the German armed forces' mission to Afghanistan until March 31, 2019. DW looks at the Bundeswehr's role in the country.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M.Gambarini
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The Bundeswehr is in Afghanistan as part of NATO's "Resolute Support" mission, which began on January 1, 2015, after the alliance's previous operation in the country, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), ended on December 28, 2014.
There are 39 countries involved, with more than 13,000 personnel. The Bundeswehr had previously sent 980 troops, but in March the German government decided to increase this number to 1,300.
The goal of the mission is to train, advise and assist the Afghan security forces in the ongoing conflict with groups such as the Taliban, the Haqqani network and the regional division of the Islamic State group. This assistance is divided into eight key areas: multiyear budgeting; transparency, accountability and oversight; civilian oversight of the Afghan security institutions; force generation; sustenance of forces; strategy and policy planning, resourcing and execution; intelligence; and strategic communications. The Bundeswehr is mainly involved in implementing these goals in the north of the country.
By the end of the first year, the mission had cost Germany €315 million.
The German government views the international intervention in Afghanistan since 2001 as a success: The number of children attending school has increased eightfold, women hold a better position in Afghan society, and there have been improvements made to health care and general infrastructure.
By the end of 2017, one German soldier had been killed in Afghanistan.
Germany's NATO missions
Since West Germany's accession to NATO, Berlin has supported numerous operations involving the trans-Atlantic alliance. Since 1990, Germany's Bundeswehr has been deployed on "out of area" missions as well.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Hanschke
Germany's role in NATO
West Germany officially joined the trans-Atlantic alliance in 1955. However, it wasn't until after reunification in 1990 that the German government considered "out of area" missions led by NATO. From peacekeeping to deterrence, Germany's Bundeswehr has since been deployed in several countries across the globe in defense of its allies.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Hanschke
Bosnia: Germany's first NATO mission
In 1995, Germany participated in its first "out of area" NATO mission as part of a UN-mandated peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the deployment, German soldiers joined other NATO member forces to provide security in the wake of the Bosnian War. The peacekeeping mission included more than 60,000 troops from NATO's member states and partners.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/H. Delic
Keeping the peace in Kosovo
Since the beginning of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, some 8,500 German soldiers have been deployed in the young country. In 1999, NATO launched an air assault against Serbian forces accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists and their civilian supporters. Approximately 550 Bundeswehr troops are still stationed in Kosovo.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/V.Xhemaj
Patrolling the Aegean Sea
In 2016, Germany deployed its combat support ship "Bonn" to lead a NATO mission backed by the EU in the Aegean Sea. The mission included conducting "reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance of illegal crossings" in Greek and Turkish territorial waters at the height of the migration crisis. Germany, Greece and Turkey had requested assistance from the trans-Atlantic alliance.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/M.Schreiber
Nearly two decades in Afghanistan
In 2003, Germany's parliament voted to send Bundeswehr troops to Afghanistan in support of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Germany became the third-largest contributor of troops and led the Regional Command North. More than 50 German troops were killed during the mission. Germany withdrew the last of its troops in June 2021 as part of the US-led exit from Afghanistan.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/A.Niedringhaus
German tanks in Lithuania
Forming part of NATO's "enhanced forward presence" in the Baltic states, 450 Bundeswehr soldiers have been deployed to Lithuania since 2017. The battalion-size battlegroups there are led by Germany, Canada, the UK and US to reinforce collective defense on the alliance's eastern flank. It forms the "biggest reinforcement of Alliance collective defense in a generation," according to NATO.
