Brown's 'clear timetable' for Afghan withdrawal
Updated on 16 November 2009
In his Lord Mayor's banquet speech, Gordon Brown proposes international talks in London to set a "clear timetable" for the handover of power in Afghanistan - the key to bringing troops home.
The prime minister outlined plans for a summit in the capital in January as he delivered the latest in a series of vigorous defences of the UK's military involvement in the country.
He used his annual Guildhall foreign policy speech to say the security chiefs believed there was an opportunity to inflict "significant and long-lasting damage to al-Qaida". Unprecedented success had already been scored against the terror group this year, he said, "and we must not allow this process to be reversed by retreat or irresolution".
The speech, at the Lord Mayor's banquet, was the latest stage in a drive to shore up public support for the war amid opinion polls showing strong support for UK troops to be withdrawn.
Blogging ahead of the speech, Channel 4 News Political Editor Gary Gibbon writes: "Gordon Brown's team feel he must get across to ordinary folk a sense that the Afghanistan military mission does not just grind on forever but is governed by a plan and has an ending."
And he continues: "Before that we get the formal announcement of the additional 500 UK forces being deployed. That could come closely timed to President Obama's extra troops announcement, and that now looks likely between his return from Asia and the Thanksgiving holiday."
Welcoming a commitment by re-elected Afghan president Hamid Karzai to tackle corruption, Mr Brown said he had offered to host fellow leaders in the New Year to discuss future strategy.
"I want that conference to chart a comprehensive political framework within which the military strategy can be accomplished," he said. "It should identify a process for transferring, district by district, to full Afghan control and, if at all possible, set a timetable for transfer starting in 2010."
The prime minister renewed his warning that the British presence in Afghanistan was vital to protecting the UK from terror - pointing to the 7/7 attacks and other plots, and said he would "never compromise when it comes to the safety and security of the British people".
"Since January 2008 seven of the top dozen figures in al-Qaida have been killed, depleting its reserve of experienced leaders and sapping its morale," he said. "And our security services report to me that there is now an opportunity to inflict significant and long-lasting damage to al Qaida.
"We understand the reality of the danger and the nature of the consequences if we do not succeed: we will never forget the fatal al Qaida-led attacks in London on 7 July 2005."
Mr Brown also conceded that a climate change treaty is now unlikely to be agreed at a crunch summit in Copenhagen in December but said it should still aim for a detailed agreement. The prime minister, who has tried to persuade other leaders to join him at the UN-sponsored talks in a bid to force progress, said: "Britain is prepared to lead the way proposing a financial plan to ensure all countries can cut carbon emissions.
"And this should form part of a comprehensive agreement based on politically-binding commitments of all countries, which can be implemented immediately and which can act as the basis for an internationally legally binding treaty as soon as possible.
"The agreement must contain the full range of commitments required: on emissions reductions by both developed and developing countries, proper verification of that and finance to support this task."
Mr Brown also launched a staunch defence of European cooperation and attacked "short-sighted" critics who suggested it undermined national interests.
Any retreat to unilateralism, he warned in an apparent swipe at the Conservatives, would "condemn our nation to marginalisation, irrelevance and failure".
He also issued a fresh warning to Iran that it faced action if it failed to engage with the latest offers from major nations for a deal over its nuclear programme.
