From Spiegel: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s challenger in the federal election, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, says it’s time to think about a timeframe for withdrawing the country’s troops from Afghanistan, where the Bundeswehr has been deployed since 2002.

Chancellor candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the center-left Social Democratic Party says that, if his party wins Germany’s federal election, he wants to negotiate a “concrete schedule” for the withdrawal of German troops from Afghanistan. Steinmeier, who is Germany’s foreign minister, told SPIEGEL that, “as chancellor I would push for us to develop plans with the new Afghan government to establish a clear perspective for the duration and end of the military engagement.” (photo: DPA)