Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is calling for a clear timetable for the continuation and conclusion of German military engagement in Afghanistan. The necessary steps are to be launched together with the Afghans and international partners.

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Federal Foreign Minister Steinmeier

(© AA)

Afghanistan faces a watershed on two fronts: A new president is being elected and with him a new government will take office. And the Afghanistan Compact, the most important “agreement” between the international community and the Afghan Government comes to an end next year. A follow-on agreement will be needed.

In the Afghanistan Compact, agreed during an international Afghanistan conference in London in January 2006, the international community and the Afghan Government defined common political and civilian reconstruction goals for the time until 2010.

Steinmeier wants to use this watershed to develop a clear perspective for the continuation of the international engagement. And here, the faster the Afghan army and police are able to guarantee security in their country, the sooner the international troops can withdraw.

In a Strategy Paper drawn up in the Federal Foreign Office, ten key steps are outlined. This paper is also to form the basis for an international Afghanistan conference to be held in the coming months.

The individual steps

The Afghanistan Compact currently contains rather vague and general targets for the country’s reconstruction. We need to agree concrete goals and effectively monitor their implementation. This should be the central goal of the Afghanistan conference.

Together with the new president and new government, resolute action should be taken against corruption, mismanagement and organized (drug) crime. The international community must be stronger and more united in calling for good governance.

The training of Afghan police and army must be accelerated with the aim of handing sole responsibility for security into Afghan hands as soon as possible.

Outside the urban centers, the Afghan state is not yet managing to satisfy the basic needs of the people or guarantee their legal security. Here the international community, and Germany, too, should do more. International engagement, military but above all civilian, should concentrate however on the regions where the security situation is critical.

More efforts should focus on re-integrating the Taliban, developing alternatives to drug cultivation and regional cooperation.