Downing Street Says » Pakistan/Afghanistan

» Monday, October 19, 2009

Pakistan/Afghanistan

Asked if there had been any contact between the Prime Minister and Pakistan about the action against the Taliban, the PMS said that this was a very important initiative and the Prime Minister was being kept closely informed by his officials.

Asked what the Prime Minister thought about Rahm Emmanuel s comments that it would be reckless for the US Government to decide on troops numbers before it was able to judge that it had a true partner in the new Afghan government, the PMS said that the election results were imminent, which was an important step forward, and that the election process had to run its course. When the Prime Minister said in principle that he wished to see an increase in troop numbers he had set three conditions, one of which was to ensure that there was consensus in Afghanistan that we could move on and tackle security governance and economic development.

Asked how and when it would be decided that the conditions set out by the Prime Minister had been met, the PMS said that we hoped the conditions could be met as quickly as possible, but at least one of them was out of our control, which was the election result.

Asked if the Prime Minister accepted General Richard s remarks in The Daily Telegraph that politicians and military leaders were failing to explain the deployment of troops in Afghanistan, the PMS said that General Richard s letter to The Daily Telegraph was not exactly phrased like that. His letter said that in general terms there was always more that could be done to get people to understand what we were trying to achieve in Afghanistan and the Prime Minister agreed with that. The Prime Minister took every opportunity to set out our strategy in Afghanistan, as he had done in the House of Commons last week.

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