Trump visits troops in Afghanistan, says talks back on with Taliban insurgents

President Donald Trump said Thursday the United States had resumed talks with Taliban insurgents as he made a surprise trip to Afghanistan to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with troops.

On a brief visit to Bagram Airfield outside the capital Kabul, Trump served turkey dinner to soldiers, posed for photographs and delivered a speech after meeting Afghan

President Ashraf Ghani.

“The Taliban wants to make a deal and we’re meeting with them and we’re saying it has to be a ceasefire,” he said.

About 13,000 US troops remain in Afghanistan, 18 years after the United States invaded following the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. Trump said he planned to reduce the number to 8,600, and later added “we can go much further than that,” without giving details.

“There’s nowhere I’d rather celebrate this Thanksgiving than right here with the toughest, strongest, best and bravest warriors on the face of the earth,” the president, who was making his first trip to the wartorn country, told the troops.

Trump joked that he had just started eating when he was called away, and didn’t even get to taste his turkey.

“I should’ve started with that, instead of the mashed potatoes,” he said.

“But I hope everyone enjoyed the fantastic meal, it certainly did look good and hopefully everyone can get some well-deserved rest this holiday.”

The US earlier this year reached a deal with Taliban insurgents to pull US troops from Afghanistan and wind down America’s longest war in return for security guarantees.

But Trump made a shock move in September, describing the year-long talks as “dead” and withdrawing an invitation to the insurgents to meet in the United States due to the killing of an American soldier.

Trump said Thursday the war in Afghanistan “will not be decided on the battlefield” and that “ultimately there will need to be a political solution” decided by people in the region.