US President Donald Trump makes an unannounced visit to American troops in Afghanistan.
He said the US and the Taliban have been engaged in talks.
Trump told troops, “The Taliban wants to make a deal.
He was speaking at the Bagram airbase on his first trip to the country, where he also met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
The visit for Thanksgiving comes after a prisoner swap with the Taliban aimed at resuming peace negotiations, the BBC is reporting.
Trump also said the US was “substantially” reducing troop numbers.
Some 13,000 US troops remain in Afghanistan 18 years after the US intervention to oust the Taliban following the 11 September 2001 attacks.
Earlier on Thursday at the Rose Garden when he pardoned a turkey as is the tradition of the sitting use president, Trump said that the stock market was up.
He said, “The stock market is up again. We just set another record, so we should say that. Very substantially up. And I think that’s 132 times that we’ve set a record from the time we got elected on that very great day. But it’s… it’s good to know. A lot of people are very happy.”
