US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has arrived in Kabul on his first trip to Afghanistan as Pentagon chief amid swirling questions about how long American troops will remain in the country. Austin arrived in Kabul from India yesterday, state-owned media reported. He was expected to meet President Ashraf Ghani and other senior government officials. Last week, President Joe Biden said it would be "tough" for the US to meet a May 1 deadline to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. But he added that if the deadline, which is laid out in an agreement between former President Donald Trump's administration and the Taliban, is extended, it would not be by a "lot longer". On Friday, the Taliban warned of consequences if the US failed to meet the deadline.