» Friday, February 1, 2008Afghanistan
Asked if the Government agreed with the United States view that Germany should be more active in the south of Afghanistan, the PMS said that ultimately we would like to see Afghan troops taking over responsibility for the situation in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister had made clear in December, the importance of appropriate burden sharing within NATO. Asked if the matter had been discussed between Chancellor Merkel and the Prime Minister on Tuesday, the PMS said the matter did not come up in the plenary session, which he was present at. The PMS said that he wasn’t present at the dinner, so he did not know the answer to that. Asked if the Prime Minister had discussed the matter of Afghanistan with his Canadian counterpart, the PMS said that as you would expect, we kept in close contact with all of our allies in Afghanistan. Asked if the Prime Minister had sympathy with the views coming out of Washington and Canada about the need for NATO members to engage in southern Afghanistan, the PMS reiterated that ultimately the aim had to be to see more Afghan security forces and that was what we needed to be working towards, but the Prime Minister did make clear in December, the importance of burden sharing. Briefing took place at 11:00 | Search for related news Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says. |
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Why is the PMS apparently incapable of answering a direct question with a yes or no? I can understand wanting to carry on and qualify that yes or no with an explanation, but why can’t he give the yes or no first, and actually answer the question?
Comment by Jenny S-T — 1 Feb 2008 on 7:21 pm | Link