WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden says he chose to end the war in Afghanistan in order to focus the nation’s defenses on other security problems, including China and Russia.

Addressing the nation Tuesday from the White House on the day after the last U.S. troops left Afghanistan, ending a 20-year war, Biden said he will sharpen the focus of U.S. foreign policy by concentrating on threats such as cyberattack and the proliferation of nuclear weapon technologies.

He vows to continue counterterrorism operations, including against any threats emanating from Afghanistan. He says this can be done with forces based outside of Afghanistan.

The president also mentioned the Islamic State extremist group’s Afghanistan affiliate, which conducted a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport on Aug. 26 that killed 13 American service members and dozens of Afghan civilians. Biden said, “We are not done with you yet.”

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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is defending his handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, including the frantic final evacuation from Kabul airport.

In remarks at the White House on Tuesday, Biden said the U.S. government had reached out 19 times since March — prior to his public announcement that he was going to end the U.S. war — to encourage all American citizens in Afghanistan to leave. He acknowledged that 100 to 200 were unable to get out when the airlift ended Monday.

Biden asserted that his administration was ready when the U.S.-backed government in Kabul collapsed in mid-August and the Taliban took over. But the airlift that began Aug. 14 has been heavily criticized by many as initially unorganized and chaotic.

Biden said that 5,500 Americans eventually got out, and that “arrangements” will be made to get the remaining Americans out if they so choose.

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UNITED NATIONS — The acting head of the U.N. women’s agency is urging the Taliban to reaffirm their commitment to comply with Afghanistan’s 2004 constitution and international treaties that guarantee equality to all citizens.

She also asks them to guarantee “the full and equal participation of women in the political and decision-making processes.”

Pramila Patten said in a statement Tuesday that Afghanistan’s development and the cause of peace require the equal and meaningful participation of women in all fields including public and political life, and the Taliban must take “bold steps” to ensure their inclusion in decision-making at all levels, both nationally and internationally.

She said the hard-won gains that Afghan women’s rights activists have fought for “cannot be reversed or rolled back.”

“The inclusion of women in the governance architecture will be the litmus test for the new political leadership of Afghanistan,” Patten said. “Urgent action is needed now to ensure the full participation of women in the public and political life of Afghanistan.”

She said the Taliban must also ensure that women are protected from gender-based threats and attacks, “which violate their rights and impede their effective participation.”

The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution Monday reaffirming the importance of upholding human rights and encouraging a negotiated political settlement “with the full, equal and meaningful participation of women.”

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UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations chief is urging all countries to help the people of Afghanistan “in their darkest hour of need,” saying almost half the population needs humanitarian assistance to survive and the country faces the threat of basic services collapsing completely.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed “grave concern at the deepening humanitarian crisis in the country” in a statement Tuesday, the first day of Taliban rule after the withdrawal of the last U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

He offered some grim statistics of the looming “humanitarian catastrophe”: 18 million Afghans need aid to survive, one in three don’t know where their next meal will come from, over half of all children under age 5 are expected to become “acutely malnourished” in the next year, and every day people are losing access to basic goods and services.

Guterres said that “amid a severe drought and with harsh winter conditions on the horizon, extra food, shelter and health supplies must be urgently fast-tracked into the country.”

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the current $1.3 billion U.N. humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan is only 39 per cent funded. Guterres said a new emergency appeal for the next four months is expected next week.

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PARIS — France says “a few dozen” French nationals remain in Afghanistan, including some who wanted to be evacuated but could not as the last flight left Kabul.

Defense Ministry spokesman Herve Grandjean said in a news conference Tuesday that “all efforts are being done” to allow those left behind to get “a safe and orderly evacuation.”

He said “that is the goal of the talks under way within the United Nations framework with the Taliban power.”

In addition, France was not able to evacuate a “few dozen” former Afghan employees of the French army who asked for the protection of the country, he said.

France will do “the maximum” in the coming days and weeks to help them getting out of Afghanistan, Grandjean said.

France’s evacuation flights from Aug. 17 to Aug. 27 have evacuated about 2,600 Afghans at risk, including 110 former employees of the French army and their families.

France withdrew its troops from Afghanistan at the end of 2014.

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BERLIN — The U.S. military says it has conducted more than 100 flights to bring almost 24,000 vulnerable Afghans to its Ramstein Air Base in Germany since Aug. 20.

The 86th Airlift Wing said Tuesday that about 10,000 evacuees have already departed again for resettlement locations, with some 13,900 still at the base.

A further 2,300 people are expected to be brought to Ramstein in the coming hours and a similar number will depart for onward destinations, it said.

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ISTANBUL — Turkey’s foreign minister has warned of a fresh wave of migration from Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover.

Mevlut Cavusoglu’s comments came Tuesday at a news conference in the Serbian capital Belgrade.

“There is a migration crisis in the world and there may be a new wave of migration, it’s very likely,” he said.

Cavusoglu said a meeting of G-7 foreign ministers on Monday had discussed ways to help Afghans stay in their country.

Turkey currently hosts some 4 million refugees, mainly Syrians, and has been reinforcing security measures along its border with Iran to prevent a new influx from Afghanistan.

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CHAMAN, Pakistan — Dozens of Afghan families have crossed into Pakistan through the southwestern Chaman border a day after the U.S. wrapped up its 20-year military presence in the Taliban-controlled country.

According to witnesses Tuesday, an Islamabad-based Christian organization was providing food and tents to some of the families.

It was the first time that some Afghans were seen sitting in tents in an open area on the outskirts of Chaman, a border town in southwestern Baluchistan province.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Monday that most Afghans who came to Pakistan in the past two weeks are staying with relatives in Chaman.

Pakistan says it has not granted refugee status to any Afghans since the Taliban took the control in Afghanistan this month.

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Sigrid Kaag is traveling to Qatar, Pakistan and Turkey to discuss how to get people out of Afghanistan who did not make it onto evacuation flights while Kabul’s airport was still under the control of American forces.

Evacuation flights rescued more than 1,000 Afghans who had worked with Dutch forces and diplomats in Afghanistan during the two-decade conflict there. However, not all those who were entitled to leave made it out of the country before the departure Monday night of the last American troops.

Kaag leaves Tuesday night for a whistle-stop tour of Doha, Islamabad and Ankara in coming days before heading to a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Slovenia later this week.

The Dutch foreign ministry says that Kaag will talk to her counterparts about “the possibility of keeping borders and Kabul airport open, the importance of safe exit routes” and possible support for countries in the region.

She also will discuss support for the Afghan population - particularly women and girls — humanitarian aid and migration in the region.

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