The foreign ministry hosted the third political-military meeting of the ISAF partners present in Western Afghanistan and operating under Italian command, enlarged on this occasion to possible future contributors to the post-ISAF mission known as “Resolute Support”. The meeting’s purpose was to maintain a coordinated approach to the completion of the transition and to the future reshaping of the international presence. The session was chaired by the foreign ministry’s Director General for Political Affairs and Security Ambassador De Bernardin, and participants included high-level officials from the defence and foreign ministries of the United States, Germany, Albania, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, in addition to NATO representatives.
The meeting centred on: assessment of the situation in terms of security and political dynamics; prospects for economic development despite the shutting down of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams; timeframes and ways for the withdrawal of the international contingents in this final phase of transition; and prospects for “Resolute Support and the possible configuration of that mission.
The session also offered an opportunity to reiterate the need for concrete commitment on the part of the Afghan institutions to bolstering governance, the electoral process, the defence of human rights and the fight against corruption.
