» Thursday, May 12, 2011Afghanistan
Asked whether the Prime Minister had discussed different options for the pace of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had lots of meetings with the military and we did not provide briefing on all those meetings. President Karzai had announced in March, the first phase of security transition in Afghanistan. That began the process of transition which would be completed by the end of 2014. The PMS said that the Prime Minister had been clear that UK forces would no longer be in a combat role or in present numbers by 2015 and he had also said, as had the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) that it may be possible to reduce troop numbers this year, but he added, no decision had been taken yet. Put that the CDS had said yesterday that we would not know the full effect of the troop surge’ or of Usama Bin laden’s death until the autumn and was it not premature to say now that we could withdraw troops, the PMS reiterated that the Prime Minister had said that it may be possible to start pulling troops out by the end of this year. Briefing took place at 10:00 | 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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