Denmark, Norway shut Kabul embassies, Finland evacuates staff

Denmark and Norway will temporarily shut their Kabul embassies while Finland will evacuate up to 130 local Afghan workers, ministers from the Nordic countries said on Friday.

"The Danes in Afghanistan must leave the country immediately, the situation is very serious," foreign minister Jeppe Kofod told a news conference, adding that all embassy employees will be evacuated and the mission will be closed temporarily.

Norway echoed the move, with foreign minister Ine Eriksen Soreide telling a news conference that evacuation will also be available "to locally employed Afghans with immediate family in Norway who wish it".

Meanwhile Soreide's Finnish counterpart Pekka Haavisto said the country's parliament had agreed to "take in up to 130 Afghans who have worked in the service of Finland, the EU and Nato along with their families" because of "the quickly weakening security situation".

Haavisto said Finland's embassy would remain open for now, subject to ongoing security evaluations.

The announcements come as Washington announced on Thursday that it was sending thousands of troops to Kabul to evacuate diplomats and other nationals in the face of the Taliban's advance into the Afghan capital. 

The United Kingdom quickly followed the US lead. 

On Friday, Germany announced it was reducing its diplomatic staff in Kabul to the "absolute minimum" in the face of the Taliban offensive, which is approaching the Afghan capital.

 Germany to cut Kabul embassy staff to 'absolute minimum'

Germany is slashing staff levels at its embassy in Kabul to an "absolute minimum", Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Friday as Taliban militants advance on the Afghan capital.

Maas told reporters the evacuation would be carried out "in the coming days" following similar moves by the US and Britain.

"We will send a crisis support team to Kabul to help us boost security precautions" during the withdrawal, Maas said, adding that the embassy would "remain able to function".

Maas said he had spoken overnight about the steps with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ahead of a crisis cell meeting at his ministry early on Friday.

"We have been preparing for weeks for this situation we are now confronted with," he said.

The German minister said that already scheduled charter flights would be moved forward to take both German embassy staff "as well as local staff who are still in Afghanistan" to Germany.

The ministry earlier on Friday estimated its staff levels at the Kabul embassy in the "high double digits". 

Maas said that the Afghan personnel would be issued visas on their arrival in Germany "to accelerate their departure".

He renewed a call made on Thursday by his ministry for all German citizens still in Afghanistan to leave the country immediately. 

"We will coordinate all further measures with our international partners in the coming days," he said. 

The evacuation orders by NATO allies came as the Taliban took control of Kandahar -- Afghanistan's second-biggest city -- in the insurgency's heartland, leaving only Kabul and pockets of other territories in government hands.

The first wave of the offensive was launched in early May after the United States and its partners all but withdrew their forces from Afghanistan, with President Joe Biden determined to end two decades of war by September 11.

NATO envoys were holding an urgent meeting on Friday afternoon about the deteriorating situation, diplomatic and official sources told AFP.