Downing Street Says » NATO visit

» Monday, November 27, 2006

NATO visit

Asked what the Prime Minister would be seeking in Riga, the PMOS replied that if people looked back at what the Prime Minister had said in PMQs last week in answer to the Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Minister had expressed having been to Afghanistan last week his determination that we did everything we could to support the Afghan Government, not just because it was important for Afghanistan, but also because it was important for the wider conflict against extremism and terrorism. Everybody knew that there were certain requirements that we had to meet if we were to do that, and as the Prime Minister had said at PMQs, part of that was seeing whether other nations would change some of the caveats around how they used their troops. That was part of what we would be trying to explore in Riga. These were matters first and foremost for NATO, but what the Prime Minister would be setting out, based partly on his personal experience in Afghanistan, was that nobody should underestimate how important and crucial this was for NATO. The PMOS said that it was a significant moment for NATO.

Asked if the Prime Minister was hopeful that some nations would provide more troops, but if nations did not want to send troops, would they provide equipment like helicopters instead, the PMOS replied that there were different ways for countries to help, be that through logistics, or civilian staff etc. The important thing was that we looked at the tasks as a whole, and answered the need as a whole. The PMOS said that people should not get ahead of themselves, as there was some evidence of some rethinking going on, but people should wait and see.

Asked if changing caveats was opposed to extra troops, the PMOS said that there were different levels of requirement. What the Prime Minister had said last week was that changing caveats would be one way of helping to resolve the overall situation.

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