NATO chief hails results of Afghan Conference
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NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed the achievements of the London conference on Afghanistan on Thursday.
Fogh Rasmussen attended the conference, which was co-hosted by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. At the conference, major participants hammered out a strategy for handing over security to Afghan security forces.
"NATO and our ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) partners have just agreed on a framework for transition to eventual full Afghan security primacy," he said in a statement, adding "the Afghan people should have no fear that we will leave too early. We will not. But we want transition to take place as quickly as possible."
He attached great importance on training Afghan security forces and welcomed the announcement by several countries to contribute.
"It is of utmost importance that now 39 countries have pledged an additional 39,000 troops to our mission in Afghanistan. It's a great success. In addition to that, we have decided to build up the capacity of the Afghan Security Forces, soldiers and police, to a level of 300,000," he said.
He showed strong support for the reintegration strategy that was put forward by the Afghan government to provide alternative livelihoods to Taliban militants and lure them to lay down their arms.
"We know that many Taliban members would like to be reintegrated in the Afghan society. Our challenge is to provide them with better life opportunities, a better livelihood. We have to invest in economic and social development. And this is what the international community has committed itself to finance," he said.
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