"The reason why we have a military presence in Afghanistan is because Afghanistan and his neighbour Pakistan, and the border areas between them, are the most dangerous place for development of terrorist training, planning, that can threaten this country", UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband says in an answer to questions by HotNews.ro readers.
Read the full answers of David Miliband and Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ivan Lewis for HotNews.ro readers.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband's answers to HotNews.ro readers:
1. What are the main reasons for the UK military presence in Afghanistan?
David Miliband: The reason why we have a military presence in Afghanistan is because Afghanistan and his neighbour Pakistan, and the border areas between them, are the most dangerous place for development of terrorist training, planning, that can threaten this country. Why do I say that? I say that because in the 1990’s Afghanistan was the incubator of choice for international terrorism, that’s where Al Qaeda based itself. After 2001 and the attacks on twin towers, the international forces drove the government of Afghanistan, the Taliban government, administering misrule in that country, and it also drove out Al Qaeda that was sheltering under its umbrella; and now the Al Qaeda senior leadership is in the bad lands, the border lands of Afghanistan and Pakistan and that’s why it remains the most dangerous territory for us in the West. That’s not to say that people don’t plan terrorist incidents elsewhere in the world. We’ve all followed the Christmas events that took place in Detroit, and that have links back to Yemen closely, but Afghanistan has a military presence with British troops there, 10.000 British troops there, because of the its centrality to our own security. Now it’s also the case that we have de
