Downing Street Says » Afghanistan

» Monday, November 8, 2010

Afghanistan

Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with the comments made by General Richards on there being no troop withdrawal until 2012 at least, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that the Prime Minister and the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) were of the same mind; the CDS’s position was entirely consistent with the Prime Minister’s, both on withdrawals before 2015 being dependent on conditions on the ground and also the UK’s long-term relationship with Afghanistan.

We would continue to have a long-term relationship that may include troops in training roles and also through our diplomatic and development channels.

Put that the Prime Minister had seemed to raise hopes that troops would be pulled out sooner, the PMS said that these views were consistent as conditions on the ground would dictate troop withdrawal. The PMS added the sooner we could bring the troops home the better, but that would have to be dictated by conditions on the ground.

Put that the Prime Minister had said that troops could begin to be drawn out next year rather than 2012, the PMS said that that had come with the caveat of conditions on the ground being suitable.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

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.