Kept out of Afghan meet, India lodges protest with Turkey

New Delhi has lodged a protest with Ankara for keeping it out of the Afghanistan security conference in Istanbul, apparently at the behest of Islamabad. This may cast a shadow over Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s visit to India next fortnight. Gul, the organiser of the conference, is on a two-day visit to India from February 9 after which he will leave for Dhaka.



India, France and Japan, all of whom have a substantial stake in stabilising Kabul, had protested to Ankara for not being invited to the conference to mull over the military and political future of Afghanistan. Paris and Tokyo were squeezed in at the last moment with New Delhi being left out in the cold.



The highest levels of the UPA government are upset at the Ankara snub as Turkey tilted towards Pakistani plan of keeping the conference at first confined to the immediate neighbours of Afghanistan and then shutting the door on India. This is despite the fact that Russia had invited Indian MEA officials for a separate Afghanistan conference in Moscow on January 25 and the United Kingdom has invited Foreign Minister S M Krishna to attend the London conference on January 28.

Source:indianexpress.com/

Military strategy alone is not enough to win Afghan war – Brown

BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said military strategy alone is not sufficient to win the Afghanistan war.

And UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he expected Afghan President Hamid Karzai to reach out to other political leaders to promote reconciliation.

In a press conference on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Port-of-Spain on Saturday, Prime Minister Brown said while Britain was prepared to raise troop levels in Afghanistan in the short-term military strategy alone was not sufficient.

He said it should be political strategy that is complimented by a military strategy that would work.

Prime Minister Brown said President Karzai would have to accept that there would be milestones and benchmarks to set that his government would have to meet.

He said he would announce next week whether the UK would send 500 more troops to Afghanistan. If he does the UK troop levels there would reach 9,500.

"What we need is a political push to match the military push that we are now agreeing to," Prime Minister Brown said.

He said London would host an international conference on 'Afghanisation' on January 28, 2010.

Prime Minister Brown said the conference would clear on the need to build institutions in Afghanistan.

He called for clear plan on police training, fighting corruption, appointing governors in provinces and districts including having strengthened civil society.

Prime Minister Brown said President Karzai would have to welcome into the democratic process people who renounced their support for the Taliban.

He said the Taliban had limited support in Afghanistan but emphasized the need for a corrupt free police.

Prime Minister Brown said President Karzai had promised setting up an anti-corruption task force. He said a lot of work needs to be done and the international community was demanding more.


Source:postzambia.com