Cameron Praises Ghani’s Power-Sharing Deal in Afghanistan

By Alex Morales  

Photographer: Dan Kitwood - Pool/Getty Images

Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, left, President Ashraf Ghani and Prime... Read More

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s decision to bring his main political rival into government on a visit to Kabul as he ruled out sending more combat troops to the country.
Cameron met Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, the government’s chief executive officer, after landing in Kabul in a C-17 military transport plane today for an unannounced visit. Abdullah was runner-up in a disputed election that concluded last month and Ghani asked him to help run the government as part of a power-sharing agreement to avoid violence.
“I want to pay tribute to President Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah for the courage and determination they have shown in the formation of this national unity government,” Cameron said at a press conference. “They have put the hopes of the millions of Afghans who
braved insecurity and threats to vote in April and June first.”
The U.K. is winding down combat operations 13 years after first sending forces to Afghanistan as part of an international coalition to fight the Taliban and hunt for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The last front-line British troops are due to leave by the end of the year after helping to maintain stability during an election process set against threats of violence from the Taliban.

Photographer: Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images

Newly-sworn in Afghan President Ashraf Ghani delivers his address during his swearing... Read More

“We have managed a first which is really rare in the Muslim world: a democratic transfer of authority,” said Ghani, who took office four days ago. “We did not devise a formula of winner takes all. We came together because political unity is necessary to solve the problems of Afghanistan.”

‘Generational Struggle’

For the U.K. military, the focus of the fight against Islamic militants has now shifted to Iraq and Syria, where Islamic State has seized a swath of the two countries, carrying out mass executions and beheading western journalists.
“We are fighting a generational struggle against Islamist extremist terrorism,” Cameron told reporters in Kabul before his meetings. “It had its original furnace here where al-Qaeda was based. It no longer has that presence because al-Qaeda are no longer based here, but you can see Islamist extremist terrorism with Boko Haram in Nigeria; with al-Qaeda in Yemen and of course with ISIL in Iraq and Syria.”
“This is a battle that we are going to be engaged in for many many years,” Cameron added.

U.K. Mission

U.K. pilots have already flown a dozen sorties and carried out strikes on four of those missions, Cameron said in a statement earlier, after landing in Akrotiri, Cyprus, where he met a flight crew at the British airbase and pledged extra aircraft. British planes hit eight targets and helped Iraqi forces hold territory and push back Islamic State fighters, he said.
“We want to make sure that we can keep up this tempo in the days ahead so we will deploy a further two Tornados to Akrotiri in the next 24 hours,” he said.
In Afghanistan, the U.K. now has about 1,300 soldiers at its main base, Camp Bastion, in the southern province of Helmand. The U.K. deployment peaked at about 9,500 troops, and stood at 5,200 at the beginning of this year. By year-end, the Ministry of Defence says “a small number of soldiers” will remain to train Afghan soldiers and police officers.
A total of 453 British soldiers have been killed during the Afghanistan campaign, according to Ministry of Defence data.
“The work that you all do here will go on elsewhere in the world,” Cameron said in an address to troops at Camp Bastion today. “If our grandfathers were fighting fascism and our fathers were fighting communism, the struggle against Islamist extremist terrorism is the struggle of our generation.”

Ghani Pledge

Ghani came to power pledging to tackle endemic corruption and tap Afghanistan’s mineral wealth to reduce dependence on foreign aid that funds about 60 percent of the country’s budget. A day after assuming the presidency on Sept. 29, he signed security agreements to keep the U.S. and allied troops in the country beyond this year.
While the U.K. Ministry of Defence says Taliban violence will continue in Afghanistan, ministers have highlighted progress since the 2001 invasion. At the Conservative Party conference two days ago, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said in a speech that Britain and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have helped train 350,000 Afghan police and soldiers.
Eight million people voted in elections this year, and 7 million children now attend schools, including 3 million girls whose education was restricted under the Taliban, Fallon said.
Britain has pledged 178 million pounds ($287 million) in annual development aid through 2017 to help Asia’s poorest nation. A total of 70 million pounds a year will go to develop Afghan security forces.