New Nato Chief Open to Negotiations with Taliban
Describing war in Afghanist as organisation’s priority, the new Nato chief has said that he is open to negotiations with moderate members of the Taliban.
Ahead of the Afghanistan presidential election, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the new Secretary General of NATO, has a tough task with thousands of troops battling a brutal Taliban insurgency.
On his first day in the job while addressing the media, he highlighted the importance of the August 20 poll.
“This month’s elections will not be to the same standards as we expect from parliamentary votes in our allied nations,” he said. “But they must be credible first and foremost in the eyes of the Afghan population.”
A former prime minister of Denmark, Rasmussen said that the Nato mission must succeed for the sake of ordinary Afghans as well as for the sake of global security.
“Our mandate from the United Nations is clear, so is the importance to global security to help prevent Afghanistan from becoming again the grand central station of international terrorism.”
The 56-year-old, who is replacing Dutch diplomat Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, has previously said that he supports negotiating with moderate elements of the Taliban insurgency, but that the group has a hardline core that cannot be re-integrated into society.
He said his second priority is to improve ties with Russia and to ensure that thousands of Nato troops are eased out of Kosovo without re-igniting the ethnic tensions.
