Downing Street Says » Afghanistan

» Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Afghanistan

Put that there appeared to be some puzzlement from NATO about the figure of 5000 troops the Prime Minister had mentioned in his letter to NATO Secretary General Rasmussen and why was the Prime Minister so optimistic about this figure being achieved, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had sent one of his most senior officials to talk to a number of countries and he had had feedback from those meetings.

The Prime Minister’s view was that there was a clear consensus amongst the allied partners that the right thing to do was to move forward with the next stage of the campaign in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister also genuinely felt that it was important to keep the NATO Secretary General updated. We were not expecting those countries who would commit additional troops to make a coordinated announcement as that was not practical or pragmatic, but we were optimistic that those numbers were achievable.

Asked if people should expect some of the bigger European countries to commit more troops, the PMS said he did not think it was appropriate for him to be drawn on which other countries may or may not produce their own figures.

Asked what the proposed conference on Afghanistan in London would cover, the PMS said it would cover Afghanistan more widely and would be a good opportunity to assess the progress made by President Karzai and the five tests.

Asked if the conference would be under UN auspices, the PMS said that the UN would certainly be involved, but if it was to be held in the UK, the UK Government would take the lead on it.

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