Cameron says UK strategy 'on track' in Afghanistan | Politics

 

• Tuesday 1 March 2011 17.22 GMT

• Article history

The UK government is on track to deliver on its strategy in Afghanistan and remains "cautiously optimistic" about the progress made, David Cameron has said.

The prime minister met the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, in Downing Street to "take stock" and to discuss three priorities for the year: capitalising on the momentum created in the military campaign, the continuing to bolster the Afghan security forces, and beginning the process of transferring responsibility for security into Afghan hands.

Flanked by Karzai at a press conference, Cameron said the "cautiously optimistic" assessment he made on his last visit to British bases in Afghanistan, in December, was unchanged. "Real progress is being made every single day, with our support," he said.

While real challenges remained, Afghan forces were increasingly successful and would begin to take the lead in security matters this year. There would be no UK forces in combat roles in Afghanistan by 2015, Cameron said.

"Taken together with the tangible inroads British troops are making in taking on the insurgency, including in its former heartlands in Helmand province, where British forces continue to push back the enemy in an extremely dangerous environment, there is, I believe, clear evidence that we have the right strategy, we have the resources to back it up, and we are on track to deliver it."

Cameron told Karzai Britain and Afghanistan would continue to "have a very strong relationship" after 2015 – "a relationship based on diplomacy, on trade, on aid, on development, on military training [and] above all on friendship, because Britain is an all-weather friend, not a fairweather friend".

He told the Afghan president it was "vital" that he to took forward the wide-ranging reforms needed to help create "a strong and sustainable Afghan state which the international community can go on investing in and supporting".

Alongside the military campaign, real progress on the political front was also crucial to ensure this year could be a decisive one for peace.

"While the military campaign is while hugely important, it is only part of the equation. So this year, we need real progress on [an] Afghan-led process of reconciliation and reintegration under which it is made clear to the insurgency that if they are willing to take certain steps – abandon violence, cut ties to al-Qaida, accept the basic tenets of the Afghan constitution – then they would be welcomed back into the mainstream of Afghan life.

"It is time for the Taliban to start to make this journey and to make this year a decisive year for peace in Afghanistan."

Karzai offered the gratitude of the Afghan people to the UK, thanking British taxpayers for their financial support, and British servicemen and women for their sacrifices.

He said he was working towards a complete transition in 2014, which would mean the whole country being looked after by Afghan forces and being under an Afghan system of governance by then.

But he said this would not mean a complete removal of the international presence in his country: countries such as the UK would continue to have a "supportive role", in terms of training, and "building capacity".

"Afghanistan will be honoured to have an enduring relationship with the United Kingdom," said Karzai. "Afghanistan will try its best, its utmost, to take the help you provide to us and use it in a manner that will provide Afghan people with a better future, a peaceful future, a future in which Afghanistan will be a partner with you but not a burden for you as we move forward."

Cameron was questioned on the government's decision to make 11,000 redundancies in the British armed forces – potentially including some troops who are now on the frontline in Afghanistan.

The prime minister conceded that cutting about 5,000 personnel from the army, 3,300 from the navy and 2,700 from the RAF would be "difficult" for those affected. But he said the losses were necessary to "modernise and update" Britain's forces in readiness for future challenges.

"We don't take any of these decisions lightly, and they will have a difficult impact on the people involved," he said. "And we must do everything we can to help them. But it's right to make the decisions and modernise the armed forces. At the end of this process, we will still have probably the fourth largest defence budget anywhere in the world.

"Yes, it is difficult taking these decisions. But it is absolutely vital, because if you just stay where you are and you don't modernise your armed forces, you will not be able to cope with the threats and difficulties that a nation like Britain will face in the future."