WEBVTT

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I think that President Obama's

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announcement of drawdown of U . S .

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Troops is absolutely in line with NATO

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strategy has agreed at the Lisbon

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summit and the reason for that is that

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over the next 3.5 years we're going to

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be progressively handing over security

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control of Afghan territory to the

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Afghan armed forces . And that is

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something which is a shared goal . It's

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what President Karzai wants , that is

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what we think is the right thing to do

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as well . And really the drawdown which

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the president has announced he's

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enabled precisely because we have had a

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good deal of success in training the

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Afghan security forces to take the

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security tasks themselves and deal with

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them successfully . You know , since

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the United States surge took place 18

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months ago and indeed the allied surge

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as a whole . Uh we've seen over 100,000

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afghan troops and police have been

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trained to take on security tasks

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Before the end of

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the process . By the end of 2014 would

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have trained another 70,000 odd troops

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and police . So this is a very big

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commitment in terms of Afghanistan's

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ability to maintain its security itself .

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So I think that the announcement which

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the president made was prudent and I

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think that it will allow us to complete

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our campaign goals so that we can

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withdraw the troops of from

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combat missions by the end of 2014 .

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it's the role of responsible military

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commanders of course to make

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recommendations which would give them

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all of the elements that they would

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really like to be able to run a

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successful campaign is the job of

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politicians then to reach judgments ,

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which take into account all of the

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factors , the political factors and the

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military factors . And that is what the

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president has done in this case . Now .

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As far as the other partners , we have

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both within NATO and our partners

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outside NATO are concerned . Uh What

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they will understand is that we are not

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near the end of the campaign at present .

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We have another 3.5 years to go in

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combat missions . And even after that ,

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we will want a long and strong

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partnership with Afghanistan in the

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future . So , I think that what all

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capitals will be thinking about is

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whether they can prudently and

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responsibly withdraw a proportion of

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the forces they have committed to

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Afghanistan , but I'm sure that they

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will do so in a way which maintains the

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campaign . So this is absolutely not a

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precipitous drawdown . This is a

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carefully calibrated , carefully

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considered , a gradual reduction in our

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force levels in Afghanistan , which

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will leave us enough to do the job

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which we're here to do . If you compare

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the Afghan security forces now with how

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they were two years ago , you see a

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huge improvement . We now see

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afghans leading many missions which we

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are managing in Afghanistan . We see

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them taking responsibility for their

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security uh in a number of areas .

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Indeed , in the next few days we will

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begin the process of transition and

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afghan forces will be taking

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Responsibility for security in various

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cities and parts of Afghanistan where

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somewhere between 20 and 25% of the

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population live . And you know , if you

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look at the way in which the Afghan

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forces have responded to some really

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difficult security incidents over the

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last few weeks in places like Kandahar

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and Herat , you see increasing

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professionalism now . In addition to

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that , of course , we've got another

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3.5 years to go , during which time uh

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NATO and its partners forces will

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continue to be playing an active combat

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role in Afghanistan . So we are not

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leaving the Afghan forces on their own .

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Even after that , we will want to

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maintain a strong relationship with

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Afghanistan based not only on training

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of their continued training of the

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security forces , but also in other

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ways too . So yes , I'm pretty

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confident that by the end of the period

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we are going to be having really

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capable of Afghan forces who will be

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able to maintain the security of their

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own country .