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By the end of the year, the number of heavily armoured, mine-resistant Mastiff vehicles will have almost doubled compared with August. The number of Ridgback-a smaller, more agile version of the Mastiff-will have increased by over 75 per cent. By spring next year, they will be joined by more Mastiffs adapted for explosive
disposal work and new Warthog tracked vehicles, showing the results of our investment over the last three years of more than £1 billion from the Treasury reserve in vehicles for Afghanistan. By the end of this year also, the build-up of a 200-strong counter-improvised explosive device task force, along with the dedicated equipment necessary, will be complete. In addition, aerial surveillance hours available to commanders have increased by over 40 per cent., and a further 200 specialist troops will be deployed against IEDs by spring 2010.
Three years ago, equipment and support for our forces deployed to Afghanistan, funded from the Treasury reserve, was estimated at around £190,000 supporting each individual there. This year it is more than double that-around £400,000 and still rising-and the best possible support and equipment is what we owe those who are fighting for our country in Afghanistan.
I said, secondly, that our contribution of 9,500 must be part of an agreed approach across the international coalition, with all countries bearing their share-a coalition whose principal member and largest troop contributor is of course the United States of America, and we continue regular discussions with the President and his team about the coalition's evolving strategy. America, as everyone knows, will make an announcement tomorrow, and the Secretary-General of NATO-I pay tribute to his work-reports that, in addition to the UK and the USA, eight countries have already made offers of additional troops and that other countries are likely to follow.
It is often said that America and Britain are fighting alone. This is wrong: excluding America and Britain, the numbers of international coalition troops will have risen from 16,000 in January 2007 to around 30,000 soon, and I believe that over the coming months even more countries will respond. Our effort in Helmand will benefit. Last year, total international force levels in the province were around 7,000; now they will be above 20,000-three times what they were.
Our third condition for deploying additional British troops was that the military effort of the international coalition must be matched by Afghan effort. President Karzai and his Defence Minister have assured us not only that 5,000 members of the new Afghan national army corps will be deployed to Helmand to be partnered by British troops during 2010, but that additional recruits will arrive for training in the next few weeks.
So with the three conditions now met, I can confirm that we will move to a new force level of 9,500; that the extra troops will deploy in early December to thicken the UK troop presence in central Helmand; and that from late January they will make the transition to the partnering role that we envisage for them. For understandable reasons of operational security, we shall continue to withhold information about their deployment and the nature of activities of our special forces, but at this time of increasing international effort, it is right to give a more comprehensive account of our total military commitment to the Afghanistan campaign. I believe that the British people have a right to know, and deserve the assurance, that our highly professional, widely respected and extraordinarily brave special forces are playing their full role not only in force protection but in taking the fight directly to the Taliban, working in theatre alongside our regular forces. I want the whole country to pay tribute to their work.
Taking into account those special forces, their supporting troops and the increases announced today, our total military effort in Afghanistan will be in excess of 10,000 troops. That force level enables us to deliver our military strategy of bringing security to the population. It will support our political strategy of strengthening the Afghan Government at national and local level, as they in return take steps to govern in a clearer, more effective and more inclusive way. It will accelerate the development of the Afghan army and police, so that in time they can take over responsibility for security and thus ensure that our troops can come home.
We are ensuring as best we can the safety of our forces, and we are today setting benchmarks for Afghanistan to meet. In the past few months, we have worked hard to achieve a stronger military presence across the coalition, with a more equal sharing of the burden, and in all we do we will never forget this fundamental truth of the military campaign: that keeping the streets of our country free from terrorism is our utmost responsibility, and that for a safe Britain, we need a stable Afghanistan. I commend this statement to the House.
Mr. David Cameron (Witney) (Con): I thank the Prime Minister for his statement, but before turning to Afghanistan, may I start by putting right something I got wrong last week? Although the two Islamic schools I mentioned got Government money while being run by people linked to the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, and although they did receive that money under a pathfinder scheme, it was not the pathfinder scheme concerned with combating extremism. I am sorry for the error-I believe that when one gets a fact wrong, one should put it right-but I continue to believe that it is wrong that taxpayers' money goes to schools run by extremists.
In Afghanistan, 235 British service personnel and Ministry of Defence staff have lost their lives and many more have been injured. That is a high price to pay, so first I endorse absolutely what the Prime Minister said about our forces. They are doing an extraordinary job, and they have the admiration and support of our whole country. We also back the reason for being in Afghanistan-that is, to enable Afghans to look after their own security without presenting a danger to the rest of the world. The sooner that happens, the sooner our forces can come home.
I want to ask the Prime Minister today about three matters: first, the political and military surge; secondly, the conference that is planned for January; and thirdly, the timetable that he has set out for handing over provinces and districts to Afghan control. On the 500 additional British troops, this is the same further deployment that the Prime Minister announced on 14 October, as he said, subject to the three conditions being met. Let me ask a little more about the three conditions. The first was burden sharing among NATO allies. He told the House on 18 November that he was in touch with eight allies about increasing their contribution, and he repeated the figure of eight allies today. Can he tell us which countries have pledged more troops, how many troops there will be in total, when they will be deployed and how many of them will go to Helmand?
The second condition was to ensure the forces had the necessary equipment. The Prime Minister today tells us that they will have that equipment. I have to say
that that is a test set by the Government and then judged by the Government. Although what he said about helicopters is welcome, is it not the case that in pro rata support, the US forces in Helmand have far more helicopters available to them? Is it not also the case that the Merlins, which the Prime Minister mentioned, are unconnected to the 500 troops that we will deploy because the Merlins were ordered a long time previously? It is worth making the point that if the Prime Minister had not personally cut £1.4 billion off the helicopter programme, we would not be in the situation that we are in today.
The third condition was that additional Afghan forces would deploy to Helmand. The Prime Minister helpfully gave us the figures today. Will he assure us that they will remain in Helmand once deployed? Is it still the case, as was reported to me, that fewer than 10 per cent. of Afghan forces are in Helmand province, even though almost half the fighting in Afghanistan takes place there?
The Prime Minister has set out some clear benchmarks for the Karzai Government. Why are we setting out such conditions only now, three and a half years after our forces arrived in Helmand? On the detail, is it really credible to deal with corruption in the police in the Prime Minister's six-month timetable when we have not managed it in the past three and a half years?
On what the Prime Minister said about appointing provincial governors, since my understanding is that most are already in place, what exactly does he mean by that pledge? Does he mean that some current governors must be replaced?
Let us consider the London conference. The Prime Minister also mentioned the Loya Jirga. Does he now believe that the Bonn settlement got it wrong and that the constitution in Afghanistan is too centralised? We have been pressing for some time for the appointment of a senior international figure to help drive forward the political strategy. Does the Prime Minister believe that that will now happen? Will he take up our suggestion of creating a permanent contact group of Afghanistan's neighbours to help deliver stability?
On Pakistan, some of the Prime Minister's remarks at the weekend, reported in the press, seem rather different from what he has said in the Chamber in recent weeks. When I asked him in October about Pakistan, he went out of his way to defend the way in which Pakistan was planning to take on al-Qaeda. As he put it, the Pakistan Government were
"planning how to deal with not only the Pakistan Taliban but the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda itself."-[ Official Report, 14 October 2009; Vol. 497, c. 305.]
He described that as "encouraging". However, he has now gone out of his way to criticise Pakistan for failing to deal with al-Qaeda. Will he tell us a little more about what has changed in his thinking about the approach?
There has also been much speculation, following what the Prime Minister said in Trinidad, about timetables for handover. The statement to the House is slightly different from the briefing given to the press at the weekend. He says that he wants the London conference to determine the conditions for transferring provinces and districts to Afghan control. Yet he also said, not to the House, but in Trinidad, that he wants to see at least five provinces transferred to Afghan "security lead" by
the end of 2010, and that he believed that that would be possible for "one or two" districts in Helmand. How can the Prime Minister be confident of that timetable before the London conference has even met and set the benchmarks? Naturally we all want our troops to come home as soon as possible-as soon as their job is done. However, does the Prime Minister agree that we must never say or do anything that gives the impression to the Taliban that we will not see this through? Nor should we raise any false hope or expectation among the families of British forces that may later be dashed. Can he therefore assure the country and our forces, as we approach the general election, that any suggestion about timetables for handover will be based on a hard-headed assessment of the situation on the ground? Is it not the case that the British public want us to do what is right-not speculate and risk the danger of raising false hopes?
The Prime Minister: First, I want to thank the Leader of the Opposition for his continuing support for the work of our forces in Afghanistan. In spite of the detailed comments that he made on some issues, we should get this in proper perspective. We are fighting terrorism and fighting al-Qaeda in Pakistan, but to do that successfully we must prevent them from having space in Afghanistan. Our plan for Afghanistan is not simply a military strategy-although that is central and fundamental to what we are doing-but a political strategy that, over time, the Afghan people can take more responsibility and more control over their own affairs. I do not think that I could have been clearer in saying that our objectives are not limited by date, but by achievement. The achievement of Afghan control and the ability of the Afghan people to take responsibility for their security is the determining issue in all that. We are making not a time-specific, but a task-specific commitment about what we need to do.
Let me answer the right hon. Gentleman's questions about the conditions. I said-he probably picked me up wrongly-that eight countries had pledged more troops in Afghanistan and that I expected more countries to do so in the run up to the conference on 28 January next year.
Mr. Gerald Howarth (Aldershot) (Con): Name them!
The Prime Minister: I also said that President Karzai had promised that 5,000 Afghan forces would be transferred to Helmand to partner with British forces over the coming year. I also said that those recruits were starting to come now into Helmand and would be deployed with British forces in holding ground in the area in the months to come. I have said previously that the imbalance between the numbers of Afghan forces in Helmand and elsewhere has had to be addressed, and this is one way of doing that. In total, 10,000 of the Afghan forces will be trained in Helmand over the next few months.
The hon. Member for Aldershot (Mr. Howarth) suggested that I should name all the countries concerned, but it is for them to make their own announcements. The Secretary-General of NATO has made it clear to me and others that eight countries have already given him a pledge of additional forces, and that other countries will follow.
As for our own troops and their equipment, the Chief of the Defence Staff talked this morning about the increase in ground forces in Helmand. He said:
"We have a third more protective patrol vehicles and helicopters have gone up by a third too. We have more than met the remit in quantity and it is also going up in quality. The equipment people are using is the best they have ever had."
The Leader of the Opposition also asked about the conference on 28 January. It is designed to bring the international community together. I said in my statement-again, he cannot have picked this up-that we wanted a new international co-ordinator to deal with the problems of civilian and military co-operation that have arisen in Afghanistan. I hope that when the UN appointee Mr. Eide is replaced, we will be able to consider in more detail the overall co-ordination of that effort. At the conference in January, we will also want to discuss how the neighbours of Afghanistan can come together to give guarantees about Afghanistan's security and its freedom from interference in the future, and at the same time how to support the economic and social development of the country. That was covered in my statement.
Other countries may wish to make announcements about troops and force generation in connection with the conference. The issue of constitutional reform, and the possibility of a constitutional reform commission for Afghanistan, may be the subject of remarks that President Karzai may want to make. We also want further agreement on how we can transfer lead security responsibility to the Afghan people. The conference, which all countries involved in Afghanistan will want to consider attending and which will be attended by President Karzai, will be an important milestone in the development of the policy of the international community in co-operation with Afghanistan.
The Leader of the Opposition also raised issues in connection with Pakistan. It is right that 30,000 Pakistan troops are now in Waziristan and are taking on the Pakistan Taliban, as well as isolating and cornering al-Qaeda. This is an important development. Over the last few months, perhaps the most significant thing that has happened in the region is that the Pakistan Government and all Pakistan authorities, including the opposition parties, have recognised that if they do not take action against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, they themselves will fall victim to terrorism within their own country, as well as allow international terrorism to flourish in Pakistan.
As I have said in the House on several occasions, it is an important development that Pakistan is now taking action in those areas. It is also necessary, however-as has been made clear by President Obama to the Pakistan authorities, and as I made clear to President Zardari on Saturday-for more action to be taken if al-Qaeda is operating within Pakistan and seeking further space to operate there. It is the duty of the Pakistan authorities to work with all international partners to attempt to isolate and destroy al-Qaeda in Pakistan.
I do not think that there is any contradiction in what I have said. It is important to recognise what Pakistan has done, but it is important also to recognise that for the past eight years, al-Qaeda has been able to send instructions from Pakistan to the rest of the world and to organise, from Pakistan, terrorist attacks that have affected every continent. That is why we want the Pakistan authorities to act.
We are providing the additional troops that are necessary, and we are working with a coalition of 43. It is a unique coalition that has never before been assembled, and one that involves NATO and other NATO members in dealing with the terrorist problem. Today we are giving the troops both the equipment and the resources necessary to do the job, and I hope that the whole country will support us in doing so.
Mr. Nick Clegg (Sheffield, Hallam) (LD): I welcome the Prime Minister's statement, and of course join him in recognising and commending the enormously impressive work and selfless bravery of our armed forces in Afghanistan. I also join him in welcoming the soldiers from 19 Light Brigade and others who are in the House of Commons today.
It has finally become mainstream to talk about the need for a big shift in our strategy in Afghanistan. When I first questioned the effectiveness of our action there six months ago and called for precisely such a step change, I was told that it was unpatriotic to do so. The Prime Minister's change of tone since then has been dramatic and welcome. Our approach to our mission in Afghanistan has always been simple: we should do it properly or not do it at all. So does the Prime Minister agree that success is not just about troop numbers, and that focusing on troop numbers, as he has done today, to the exclusion of other things is putting the cart before the horse?
There is no point in sending a single extra soldier unless the strategy that our troops need to succeed in their mission is in place. So why is the Prime Minister making any announcements about troop numbers today, when we will not know until President Obama's announcement tomorrow what the new strategy is and what chances it has of success? I have in the past criticised the Prime Minister for keeping quiet over Afghanistan and failing to speak out in support of our troops and their mission. Has he not now swung a little too far in the opposite direction, seeking to make an announcement on troop numbers before we know whether the things are in place that would allow them to succeed?
We know from previous successful peacekeeping missions, such as those in the Balkans, that we cannot succeed unless we have the support of all the big regional powers. In Afghanistan that does not mean just Pakistan, China and Russia; it also means Iran, which is now at loggerheads with the west over its unacceptable announcement of 10 new nuclear facilities. Can the Prime Minister tell us how he will find a way to take a tough stance with Iran while seeking to keep it engaged in securing peace in Afghanistan?
A centrepiece of the Prime Minister's announcement today was his benchmark-setting for President Karzai. What happens if President Karzai does not achieve those benchmarks? What efforts are the Prime Minister and others in the alliance making to develop a plan B of bypassing Karzai's Government in Kabul and instead dealing directly with local and regional government? I am sure that the Prime Minister agrees with me that, given Karzai's record on corruption, we should not hold our breath for him to change, but work on finding ways to succeed without him if he does not.
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