Meie mees Kabulis / Our Man in Kabul

Aeg lendab Afganistanis hirmsa kiirusega. Eelmisest postitusest on möödas juba mitu kuud, mis on endasse mahutanud mitmeid kohtumisi ja tegemisi. Kõige olulisemaks oli 16.-17. juunil toimunud kaitseminister Mart Laari visiit Afganistani.  Nii nagu ikka, oli visiidi ettevalmistamine üsna pingeline – praktiliste asjade nagu lennud, söögid, majutus, julgeolek jms kõrval tuli üsna palju vaeva näha kohtumiste ettevalmistamisega. Kõige keerulisem oli seejuures ühise kohtumise korraldamine Ühendkuningriigi ja Taani kaitseministritega. Taolise kohtumise korraldamise mõte oli meil juba pikemat aega ning nüüd siis see toimus. Kabulis toimunud kohtumisele järgnes ka pressikonverents, kus jagati välja ka ühisavaldus (avalduse tekst allpool).

Visiit viis delegatsiooni ka Helmandisse, kus kohtusime teiste kõrval ka Eesti sõduritega. Mart Laar on tõenäoliselt esimene kaitseminister, kes ka ööbis nn eesliinil Eestlate patrullbaasis Wahid. Olud on seal ikka üsna karmid – elasime ka üle öise liivatormi, mille tõttu enamus delegatsioonist tõusis hommikul telgis üles üsna kollaka nahavärviga. Kõik kohad olid liiva täis. Järgmise hommiku hilisematel tundidel õnneks torm vaibus ja saime siiski oma programmi jätkata ja edasi lennata järgmisesse baasi. Pilte saab vaadata siit: http://www.mil.ee/~fotek/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album1127

Kiired ajad Kabulis jätkuvad – tulemas on mitmeid rahvusvahelisi konverentse ning enne kui minu lähetus siia lõpeb, on veel üsna pikk nimekiri asju, mida on vaja ära teha.

Here in Afghanistan, time passes by with horrible speed. It is already two months since last posting and this time has been full of different meetings and activities. The most important one was the visit of Estonian Defence Minister Mart Laar on 16-19 June. As usually, the preparations for the visit are quite demanding – besides practical aspects like flights, meals, accommodation, security etc, it took quite some effort to organise and set up meetings with Afghan and international actors. From meetings, I would like to bring out one meeting that was with the Defence Ministers of UK and Denmark. The idea of organising such a meeting was on the table already for a long time and now it finally happened. This trilateral meeting was followed by a press conference, where a joint statement was released.

The visit took the delegation also to Helmand, where we met also with Estonian soldiers. Mart Laar is probably the first Minister of Defence to stay overnight on the front line, in Estonians’ patrol base Wahid. The conditions there are quite tough – during the night we got through a severe sand storm and in the morning everybody got up in their tents with a bit more yellow skin colour. Everything was full of sand. Fortunately, by the late morning, the storm calmed down and we could continue with our programme and fly to the next place. You can see pictures from here: http://www.mil.ee/~fotek/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album1127

Fast times in Kabul will continue – there are several international conferences coming and before I leave this country, there are still many things to do.

Joint Statement by

Dr. Liam Fox, UK Minister of Defence,

Gitte Lillelund Bech, Danish Minister of Defence and

Mart Laar, Estonian Minister of Defence

after their meeting in Kabul on 16/06/2011

We are on the eve of the 5^th anniversary of our joint mission in Southern Afghanistan. Over these five years the United Kingdom, Denmark and Estonia have worked side-by-side, adopting a comprehensive approach in our mission to make excellent progress in the region. Together, under the auspices of Task Force Helmand, and with the Afghan authorities and security forces, and other NATO allies – particularly the US – we have achieved significant results in improving the security in an area previously renowned as a Taliban stronghold. We remain committed to the ISAF campaign.

We continue to build upon these gains in order to ensure irreversible progress through developing the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), who have an essential role to play in providing both security and governance in Afghanistan. Building the capacity and capability of the ANSF will increasingly allow Afghanistan to take responsibility for her own long-term security and stability. As the NATO Secretary General said “Trainers are the Ticket to Transition”. We remain committed to supporing  the NATO Training Mission Afghanistan (NTM-A) led ANSF training mission and to wider capacity building in Afghanistan and will continue to support this effort through the Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team.

These development efforts are paying dividends. We welcome the inclusion of Lashkar Gah in the first tranche of transition areas, in which we will continue to transfer lead security responsibility from ISAF to the ANSF this summer. The ANSF will be in the lead of security provision by the end of 2014 and though the nature of our forces might evolve during the Transition process, we must ensure that the mission is appropriately resourced, and a balance maintained between combat troops (to prepare the ground to allow the rest of central Helmand to enter Transition) and trainers (to further develop the ANSF). Transition will free up troops; members of ISAF who, due to transition in their areas, will be relieved from their combat tasks are encouraged to find ways to contribute their troops to regions where stability operations continue or find other means of engagement.

All three of our nations have a long term commitment to Afghanistan and, together as part of NATO, we are pressing ahead with planning how this will evolve through and beyond transition.