Afghanistan
Defence
David Amess (Southend West, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress was made on building a stable Afghanistan at the recent NATO Summit in Chicago.
Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
At the NATO Summit in Chicago, the international community reaffirmed its enduring support to Afghanistan beyond the end of security transition in 2014. NATO’s military commanders set out the progress in the campaign—attacks by insurgents are down and transition to Afghan control is on track. NATO’s Strategic Plan for Afghanistan was agreed and plans were discussed for the future funding of the Afghan national security forces. The UK is pledging £70 million a year and total commitments to date are close to $l billion. Our aim is a stable Afghanistan that is able to manage its own security and that can prevent international terrorists, such as al-Qaeda, returning and posing a threat to our security. The NATO summit sends a clear message to the Afghan people that we will not abandon them, and to the insurgents that they cannot wait us out.