Nato leaders to sign Afghan accord

[Abyssdnb Profile]

David Cameron is to join other Nato leaders in signing up to an agreement which will see Afghan forces take over full responsibility for their country's security by 2014.

In the presence of President Hamid Karzai, the alliance leaders gathered in Lisbon will declare they are entering a "new phase" which will see an "irreversible transition" to Afghan control and leadership.

The summit in the Portuguese capital has been billed as one of the most important in Nato's 61-year history.

But while national leaders have been keen to trumpet the sealing of an exit strategy for the coalition force, senior Nato figures made clear that an international military presence would be required for "years to come".

Defence Secretary Liam Fox, in Lisbon with the Prime Minister, on Friday night reiterated Mr Cameron's commitment that Britain's combat role would be over by the time of the next general election in 2015. He also indicated that, as the transition progressed, some British forces - currently concentrated in Helmand province - could be redeployed to other parts of the country.

"As the security situation improves we will change the number of forces, in some cases that will mean drawdown in some other cases it will mean repositioning our troops in different parts of Afghanistan," he told the forces' broadcaster, BFBS. "I would think it would be unlikely that we would move out of Helmand, but we will want to do what is best for the situation in Afghanistan, and for the alliance."

Earlier, Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that, while the transition agreement provided a "realistic roadmap", the quality of Afghan forces had to improve.

Another senior Nato official cautioned that, although the US troop surge was having an effect, much more needed to be done before the conditions were right for a full handover. "We are not indulging in a lot of happy talk about the security situation in Afghanistan," the official said. "We have made real progress but that progress is not yet irreversible. What we have done is to regain the initiative."

Dr Fox said it was now imperative that the alliance leaders in Lisbon - being joined by the other troop-contributing nations - ensured the training mission was a success.

The handover process is due to begin next year, initially on a district-by-district basis and later a province-by-province basis, depending on the conditions in each individual area.

[Mediasorcerer Profile]

hmmm,what to think of this,i wonder,i wonder what the f*&^%K they were doing there in the first place!!!!

[Funnyman46 Profile YIM]

I see this in a couple of different ways;
*PR Program to make us think some kind of progress is being made
*This will be another Middle East Peace accord that’ll get pumped out every couple of years in between large battles and arms dealer profits
*Some kind of stalemate as Russia couldn’t do any better after all the time they spent in the region