NATO, Afghanistan Agree On Long-Term Partnership

Stephen Harper told fellow NATO leaders Saturday that he wants the Afghan government to do more to weed out corruption, The Canadian Press has learned.

The prime minister made that representation during crucial talks on the future of Afghanistan at the alliance’s summit in Lisbon.

Harper was addressing a special meeting of 27 alliance leaders and 20 allied countries as well as Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Harper told the leaders that the international community has made a huge commitment to Afghanistan and that must be balanced by a commitment from the Afghans to improve governance and deal with corruption, said a source who attended the closed-door session.

For his part, Karzai told reporters later that his government and people were committed to forming a good “partnership” with the international community to reach NATO’s 2014 handover target and continue rebuilding his country.

The Afghan leader said he welcomed Canada’s continued support as it plans to withdraw its troops from Kandahar next summer and take on a three-year, non-combat military training mission.

“Canada has been at the forefront of assistance to Afghanistan from the very beginning. The Afghan people are extremely grateful to the Canadian contribution to the well being of the Afghan people,” Karzai said.

“I’m sure as it was announced today by Prime Minister Harper that Canada that will continue to assist Afghanistan with the training of the Afghan forces and with the reconstruction … We are very grateful for that.”

NATO and Afghanistan signed a long-term partnership agreement Saturday that was heralded as a new era of co-operation. It is intended to send a signal to insurgents that the alliance will never turn its back on the country, even when it withdraws its combat troops.

“To put it simply, if the Taliban or anyone else aims to wait us out, they can forget it. We will stay as long as it takes to finish our job,” said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

He said the joint NATO-Afghan strategy was on track to meet its goal of pulling out its combat troops by the end of 2014. NATO wants to hand over control of security to Afghan military and police by then, ending the combat mission of foreign forces.

Some 260,000 Afghan military and police have been trained and NATO is on track to meet its goal of 300,000 fully trained security forces by the end of next year, he said.

The alliance will begin pulling out of more peaceful parts of Afghanistan early next year, but it won’t say where because it does not want to embolden Taliban insurgents.

Canada is committed to assisting that transition with a 950-member, non-combat military training mission that will teach Afghan forces until March 2014.

Rasmussen said Canada’s contribution to the training mission is crucial for the transition to be successful.

“I hope the Canadian decision will serve as a good example for the rest of the allies and partners,” Rasmussen said.

During NATO’s expanded Afghanistan meeting, Harper won praise from German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the “difficult” decision he took to extend Canada’s military presence in Afghanistan by three years, a source told The Canadian Press.

The source quoted Merkel as saying Germany would host a special international meeting next year in Bonn on Afghanistan.

In the meeting, Karzai told NATO leaders he wants more regular contact with his western partners, said the source.

The move would be symbolic because it would come exactly a decade after the first historic Bonn conference that installed Karzai as Afghanistan’s leader in the aftermath of the ouster of the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The hopeful glow of the original Bonn conference has long since faded with the deterioration of Karzai’s relations with the international community over the years.

Karzai arrived in Lisbon after a very public clash a week ago with U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, who commands the NATO-led mission in his country. It was Karzai’s latest run-in with his western partners, who have long-standing concerns about corruption in his government.

Karzai appeared contrite Saturday, and determined to leave past differences behind now that he had signed his new long-term pact with NATO.

“I hope that as we move forward many of these difficulties will go away.”

In the meeting, other leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy raised the corruption issue with Karzai, the source explained.

But the Afghan leader countered, saying he would like to see more international aid flowing directly to his government instead of it being filtered through international organizations operating in Afghanistan, said the source.

The Afghanistan government directly receives 20 per cent of international aid dollars but Karzai wants to see 50 per cent, the source said.

NATO expects a long-term engagement in Afghanistan after it ends its combat operations. Rasmussen has said he expect western militaries to be actively engaged in the country from 2015 onwards, likely in training missions.

Canada insists its training mission will end as scheduled in March 2014.

Karzai first pitched the 2014 transition when he was sworn in for a new term as president one year ago.

Harper also held bilateral talks Saturday with the prime ministers of Britain and The Netherlands, David Cameron and Mark Rutte. Troops from both countries have fought along side the Canadian Forces in southern Afghanistan, but the Dutch ended their combat mission earlier this year.

NATO leaders will also meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. It will mark the first time NATO and Russia have met since Moscow’s 2008 invasion of Georgia soured relations with the alliance.

NATO hopes to sign an agreement with Russia to expand its supply routes to Afghanistan, and it wants to co-operate with Moscow on a counter-narcotics strategy. Russia is beset by heroin that comes from Afghanistan’s illicit poppy fields.

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