TALLINN, Feb 06, BNS – Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said the international community had to continue supporting the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
During their meeting Wednesday in Tallinn Afghanistani Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak and President Ilves spoke about the situation in Afghanistan and support of the international community to help the country get on its feet, the president’s office reported.
Gen. Wardak thanked Estonia for making Afghanistan a more stable country, pointing out the successful service of more than a hundered Estonian troops in the restless Helmand Province in a NATO-led operation.
“The West must not become tired or give up; other operations rising onto the agenda must not deter our dedication to deal with the reconstruction of Afghanistan the success of which will mean a more peaceful life not just to one country or one region, but a much wider sense of security,” Ilves said. “If we do not get tired, if we do not give up the effort, then we, like also the Afghanis wishing to have positive changes, will not have to ask ourselves some time later why the West lost Afghanistan.”
Ilves said that it was very important that the Afghanistani government should gradually step up its presence in the provinces and would assume gradually more responsibility for the security situation in that unstable country.
He said that step by step, efforts of the Afghanistani government were cutting back violence. “It is necssary to recall here that 70 percent of the attacks against Afghanistani forces or NATO units take place on ten percent of the territory.
Ilves laid importance on efficient and thought-out cooperation between NATO, the European Union and the United Nations, adding that the stabilization of Afghanistan was not a military operation of NATO alone, but civilian projects have a very big role in it. “As a result our success is granted by smooth cooperation between international organizations that is free from useless dubbing,” the president said.
Durin his meeting with Gen. Wardak Ilves also expressed his serious concern for the fate of the reporter Sayed Parwiz Kambakshi sentenced to death by an Afghanistani court. Wardak said that he understood Ilves’ concern but added that the verdict was not final.
Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8814, [email protected]