AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
- President Biden on Tuesday will meet with G7 leaders to discuss the Afghanistan withdrawal.
- During the conversation, the leaders will discuss ways to evacuate allies and vulnerable citizens.
- French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly told Biden that NATO has a “moral responsibility” to help Afghan allies leave the country.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday will meet with other Group of Seven (G7) leaders as the international community continues to assess the fallout from the evacuation of US armed forces and civilians from Afghanistan.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Sunday announced the virtual meeting, which will occur two months after the group met in person for a summit in Cornwall, England.
The meeting is set to include the leaders of the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.
“The leaders will discuss continuing our close coordination on Afghanistan policy and evacuating our citizens, the brave Afghans who stood with us over the last two decades, and other vulnerable Afghans,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. “They will also discuss plans to provide humanitarian assistance and support for Afghan refugees.”
Over the last few days, Biden has had personal calls with some of the leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
The meeting comes as the Biden administration faces the reverberations of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the result of a nearly 20-year ongoing war in the country that the president pledged to end for good.
However, the withdrawal has come at a cost – with legions of Afghans attempting to seek refuge outside of the country and insurgents seeking retribution against those who aided US forces as the Taliban returns to power.
The international community has questioned Biden about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, hoping to get clarity on some of the most pressing issues, including the difficulties in getting Afghan allies out of the country.
Macron told Biden that NATO has a “moral responsibility” to help Afghan allies leave the country, according to a readout from the Élysée Palace.
In a timeline that stunned the international community, the Taliban last weekend was able to seize control of the remaining provincial capitals that it did not control en route to the capital city of Kabul, which it quickly entered, which prompted the country’s president, Ashraf Ghani, to leave in exile.
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