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“Share the burden in Afghanistan”, Defence Secretary

LONDON, Dec 14 (KUNA) — Britains Defence Secretary Des Browne Friday called on other countries to help “share the burden” of dealing with Afghanistan.
Browne spoke as defence and foreign ministers from eight countries gathered in Edinburgh, Scotland, to discuss the latest situation there.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, the Defence Secretary said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had already made it clear the UK wanted to see “fairer burden sharing across the NATO countries”.

“We are looking to our NATO partners to share the burden, particularly of the more difficult parts of the country”, he said.

Today’s meeting involves representatives from the eight countries that have troops or significant resources in the south of Afghanistan, Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Estonia and Romania.

And Australia’s defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon is reported to be planning to tell the Edinburgh gathering that his country would send no more troops to Afghanistan until European countries such as Spain and Germany stepped up their commitment.

Browne, who recently returned from a visit to Afghanistan, said “There are parts of the country where the security challenge is greater and very obviously the southern provinces, that most countries who are represented today have responsibility for are facing that”.
“We have made some significant improvements in it I think over the last 18 months and I would like to see more countries making a contribution to that”, he added.

The Defence Secretary explained that today’s meeting would look at how best the resources in Afghanistan could be used.

He said “It will concentrate on how we can get best effect from the troops and other resources that we have in the southern region of Afghanistan”.
But he stressed the commitment to Afghanistan would be a long term one.

“Nobody believes that this can be done overnight, this is long term”, Browne insisted.
“This is a country that has been ravaged by 25 years plus of conflict, this is a country that has 80 percent illiteracy rates in some places. This is a long-term commitment but we owe it to ourselves and our own security to make sure that we get it right this time”.
Browne was the first to arrive at the talks held in a chateau-style building deep in the heart of the British Army’s Craigiehall complex near the Scottish capital.

Other ministers and senior officials began arriving soon afterwards in fleets of limousines.
The meeting was surrounded by heavy security with left-wing groups having circulated details of the event, police said.

A small number of anti-war protesters gathered outside the complex this morning.
The gathering comes two days after Prime Minister Gordon Brown set out plans to secure the long-term stability of Afghanistan while ruling out talks with senior Taliban leaders.
The Prime Minister told the House of Commons of additional development aid, as well as more armoured vehicles and helicopters for British forces.

He said “We are winning the battle against the insurgency, isolating and eliminating the leadership of the Taliban, not negotiating with them”.
Britains Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown was also attending the day-long gathering with the Defence Secretary.