Poland's FM - We won't leave Afghans alone
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
03.08.2011 09:10
Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski paid a previously unannounced visit to Afghanistan, Tuesday, where he met with President Hamid Karzai to discuss Poland's role in fighting the Taliban insurgency.
radek Sikorski with President Hamid Karzai; photo - PAP/Leszek Szymanski
As Poland curreently holds the EU's rotating six-month European Council presidency, Sikorski also represented the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in the talks.
Poland has around 2,500 troops currently stationed in the south east Ghazni province as part of the ISAF multinational forces in Afghanistan.
On ISAF's plans to pull out of the country by 2014, Sikorski told journalists after his meeting with President Karzai: "‘I can assure you that we will not make the mistake of the 1990s which was to leave Afghanistan to its own devices."
Sikorski also met with ISAF commander General John Allen in Kabul and Poland's Deputy Chief of Staff Resources General Boguslaw Samol.
On Monday, Minister Sikorski was in Pakistan (pg)