President Karzai has signed strategic parternship agreements with France and Italy during his visit of Europe. While addressing a press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, he appreciated the French contribution in reconstruction of Afghanistan. President Sarkozy said French troops will resume operations from Saturday (today) and the troops will withdraw by the end of 2013. It is a welcoming move.
President Sarkozy had warned to withdraw troops earlier, in reaction to the killing of four French soldiers last week. President Karzai assured him of extra protection measures. It was a tragic incident in which a Taliban infiltrator in Afghan National Army opened fire on French troops.
The strategic partnership agreement was crafted before the incident and it has not been affected. According to the pact, French troops will remain in training missions with Afghan Security Forces beyond 2014. However, their combat role will entirely end with the withdrawal deadline by the end of 2013. Although the details of the agreement is not clear yet, and there is no mention of how long the French troops will continue training Afghan forces.
Prior to arrival in Paris yesterday, President Karzai signed a similar strategic partnership agreement with Italy. While addressing a press conference, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said inking the strategic cooperation agreement was the core of future cooperation between the two countries. He said Italy will remain committed in assisting Afghanistan beyond 2014 in areas of security, economy, and counternarcotics, implementation of the constitution and capacity building of Afghan officials.
It is not clear yet what exact role Italy will play in security beyond 2014. They will be contributing in training of Afghan National Security Forces and assistance in other sectors. Italy will be able to invest in extraction of mines in Afghanistan under this agreement.
President Karzai thanked the people of Italy for their humanitarian support and contribution in reconstruction of Afghanistan. He appreciated the sacrifices of Italian troops in fighting against terrorism and helping the Afghan Government to maintain security playing important role in our stability.
President Karzai said it was a time of pride for Afghanistan to sign a strategic partnership agreement with a friendly country.
The President is going to sign similar agreement with United Kingdom. It is important for Afghanistan to secure such cooperation agreements with key NATO member countries to ensure their continued assistance and meaningful contribution in reconstruction of Afghanistan beyond 2014. Most of these countries will remain in training roles in Afghanistan after the combat troops will be withdrawn in 2014.
These agreements must be approved by parliament before they are official and effective. MPs must go through all the agreements with important allies of Afghanistan carefully and scrutinize the pacts to ensure they agreement keep the options of accountability and transparency with Karzai Administration's decisions which will have huge impact for the future of Afghanistan and our relations with western countries.
In fact these agreements should have been discussed with parliament before they were drafted. But the government has always ignored representative of people. the parliament must check this agreements and debate on it before approval.