British Foreign Secretary William Hague meets with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on May 22. Senior British cabinet ministers warned that Britain wants to withdraw its troops as soon as possible. (AFP)
Hague, Defence Secretary Liam Fox and International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell are set to meet President Hamid Karzai in their first visit to the country since a new coalition government took power in London this month.
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Hague described Afghanistan – where around 10,000 British troops are helping fight a Taliban-led insurgency well into its ninth year – as “our most urgent priority” in comments released from London as the party touched down.
In an interview with The Times newspaper before arriving in Kabul, Fox made clear the visit would focus on speeding up the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan, and that no new troops would be deployed.
“We need to accept we are at the limit of numbers now and I would like the forces to come back as soon as possible,” he was quoted as saying.
“We have to reset expectations and timelines.
“National security is the focus now. We are not a global policeman. We are not in Afghanistan for the sake of the education policy in a broken 13th-century country. We are there so the people of Britain and our global interests are not threatened,” Fox said.
With Karzai having promised that Afghan forces will take on responsibility for the country’s security by 2014, Fox said he would see if training could be accelerated to that end.
“I want to talk to people on the ground, our trainers, to see whether there is room to accelerate it without diminishing the quality,” he said.
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