Downing Street Says » Afghanistan

Asked when the Prime Minister decided that he wanted to make a speech on Afghanistan, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that he had been thinking about it for a few days. The Prime Minister last made a speech on the issue on the 4th September and he thought now was a good time to do it.

Asked if it was in response to declining public support for the campaign, the PMS said that the Prime Minister would be restating what we were seeking to achieve in Afghanistan and also wanted to continue to show leadership on this issue.

Asked how solid the Prime Minister thought public support was, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister believed that in restating what the aims were in Afghanistan, the British public would continue to understand the importance of the campaign.

The core aim was to ensure that by the action taken by ourselves and the other allies, we made the streets of the UK safer. This was an operation that had had different phases; the Prime Minister had spelt out before the importance of Afghanisation and working on the ground both with the Afghan police and the Afghan army. This was in order to mentor and work alongside them and to ensure that there were more resources on the ground.

Asked if the Prime Minister was discouraged at all by a poll that revealed that only a third of the people in the UK thought this war was winnable, the PMS said that there was always more that could be done to explain to people something as complex as what had been happening in Afghanistan. The campaign had lasted for eight years and during that time the shape and the balance of what had been conducted in Afghanistan had changed. It was always important to get people to understand that.

Asked if there had been any progress in persuading NATO allies to share more of the burden, the PMS said that the Prime Minister remained completely committed to the importance of burden sharing. We were waiting for the US to announce the outcome of the McChrystal Review and what the implications were for troop numbers. The PMS had nothing more on that at the moment, other than the Prime Minister making it clear that one of the conditions for five hundred additional troops being deployed was that the allies involved would also be in a position to move forward at the same time.

Put that reports were suggesting that the McChrystal decision could take as long as another month and was the Prime Minister worried by what some were calling President Obama’s dithering , the PMS said that it was important that President Obama came to a considered decision and that’s what he was doing with his advisers.

Put that Paddy Ashdown had said that the Prime Minister had failed to articulate a stronger case for the war in Afghanistan, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister respected Paddy Ashdown’s views on such matters. However, through making speeches and through the Prime Minister’s trips to Afghanistan and the support he had given to our troops on the ground, the Prime Minister believed we were doing all that we could, albeit in difficult circumstances.

Asked if the Prime Minister had discussed matters with Kim Howells, the PMS said that Kim Howells had expressed personal views in the press. He was not a member of Government and was entitled to those views. The Prime Minister did not happen to agree with the views Kim Howells expressed in relation to the policy in Afghanistan.

Put that Kim Howells had also made comments about increasing spending on improved security and surveillance in the UK, the PMS said that if people looked at the investment the Government had made in counter-surveillance and intelligence activities in this country over the last few years, it came to around 3.4 billion. The Government believed that it had made a major step forward in that regard.

Asked if the Prime Minister was making a speech tomorrow because this week had marked a real turning point in public and political thinking, the PMS said he would not characterise this week as a turning point; this was another important moment for the Prime Minister to restate once again, what we were seeking to achieve in Afghanistan. We had a different presidential context at the moment and we had a position whereby the Prime Minister could reflect and also look forward to what we needed to achieve in Afghanistan over the coming months.

Asked if the Prime Minister had any timeframe in mind in terms of when the process of Afghanisation might be complete, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had not stated that, but he had said that when the process had been completed, that was the moment when effectively, our work in Afghanistan would be done. It would only be at the time when the Afghan army, police force and government could run the country on its own.

Put that General Sir David Richards had said that people could anticipate up to five more years of frontline operations, the PMS said that General Sir David Richards had spoken about the sort of timeframe in which it could be envisaged that a process of Afghanisation might be completed. The PMS added that he did not think that General Sir David Richards was saying that British troops would necessarily be withdrawing in five years.

If we were building up the Afghan army and police force and we had the new government in place, these could only be good signs for the process of Afghanisation.

Asked if the Prime Minister was planning to speak or meet with any of the relatives of the five soldiers killed, the PMS said that the Prime Minister always wrote to the family of any member of the serving forces who was killed in action. His condolences were with the families of those people who were killed in that dreadful incident.

Asked if the Prime Minister had a meeting with Labour MPs after PMQs, the PMS said he did not know.

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» Thursday, November 5, 2009

Afghanistan

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