London, Jan. 28: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that his country would need foreign support for its forces for the next 15 years.
“With regard to training and equipping the Afghan security forces, five to 10 years will be enough. With regard to sustaining them till Afghanistan is financially able to provide for our forces, the time may be extended to 10 to 15 years,” Mr Karzai told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in a joint interview with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday morning.
In his opening remarks to the Afghanistan conference here, Mr Karzai invited Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah to play a prominent role in the peace process. “We ask all our neighbours, particularly Pakistan, to support our peace and reconciliation,” Mr Karzai said.
Mr Brown, in his speech to the conference, backed President Karzai’s plan to reintegrate Taliban fighters who are prepared to and renounce arms and violence. “As an international community responding to President Karzai’s leadership, we are today establishing an international trust fund to finance this peace and reintegration programme to provide an economic alternative to those who have none,” Mr Brown said. “But for those insurgents who refuse to accept the conditions for reintegration, we have no choice but to pursue them militarily.”
The province-by-province handover of security in Afghanistan to Afghan forces will begin later this year, Mr Brown said. “The Afghan national army will number 134,000 by October 2010 and 171,600 by October 2011. And similarly today we will commit to supporting a police reform plan: with Afghan national police numbers reaching 109,000 by this October, and 134,000 by October 2011. This will bring Afghan national security forces to 300,000 in total — a presence that is far bigger than our coalition forces,” Mr Brown said.
“International forces will be 135,000; Afghan security forces will be 300,000. And the balance will continue to shift towards Afghan security control,” he added.
“This will not signal an end to our support for Afghanistan. I know that none of us here today wants to repeat the mistakes of past decades — when the international community abandoned Afghanistan and the region. But it will mark the beginning of a new phase, and a decisive step towards the Afghans taking control of their own security,” Mr Brown clarified.
Mr Brown reminded Mr Karzai that fighting corruption, securing stronger governance, economic development, supporting an Afghan-led peace and reintegration programme, and strengthening the partnerships with Afghanistan’s neighbours are the cornerstones for Afghanistan.
Age Correspondent