William Hague: A stable Afghanistan means fewer threats to NATO and its allies

We all share a common objective in Afghanistan, which is to ensure that the country never again becomes a safe haven for international terrorism.

We also share a common purpose: to build the capacity of the Afghan national security forces and the Afghan government, so that Afghans themselves can be responsible for their own territory and their own future. This is essential for our own security, and for the NATO alliance. A stable Afghanistan means fewer threats to NATO and its allies.

Afghanistan today faces many dangers. There is still an insurgency capable of terrorist spectaculars still stalks the land. There is armed opposition to the Afghan Government and to our international presence.

We will have to face up to this every remaining day our troops are in theatre in Afghanistan, and the Afghan government will battle with its consequences for many years to come. But we have made progress, and we have a clear strategy.

Ten years on, Bin Laden is dead and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been significantly weakened.

We have seen the liberation of Kabul from the Taliban regime and the establishment of government on a democratic basis.

When the Taliban was driven from Kabul there was no functioning government or civil service. Now ministries have been staffed and the current government is taking steps to combat corruption.

In 2002 only nine per cent of Afghans had access to a health facility in their local area, today this proportion has risen to 85 per cent. One in three of the six million children now in school in Afghanistan is a girl.

Just last year 50,000 new teachers were trained, over 30 per cent of them women. The 2004 Afghan constitution has enabled Afghans to vote for their government, although elections have been far from perfect. Sixty nine female MPs were elected in 2010.

President Karzai says he aspires to be the first democratic leader who oversees democratic transition to his successor, something unthinkable in Afghan’s recent past.

On the military side, too there is cause for some cautious optimism. In the British area of operations there is clear evidence that the ISAF surge has brought about security gains and had a tangible impact on insurgent activity.

This summer also saw the commencement of the formal security transition process in three provinces and four urban areas in Afghanistan, amounting to almost a quarter of the country’s population and including, which is significant for us, Lashkar Gar, the capital of Helmand Province.

The Afghan National Security Forces, which now number over three hundred thousand troops, have been able to respond effectively to insurgent attacks and to pre-empt many attacks. With international support, Afghan special forces successfully and professionally managed the recent large-scale terrorist attacks against the British Council compound and the US embassy in Kabul.

The Taliban’s recent change in tactics against single high profile individuals and spectacular attacks using IEDs and suicide bombers reflects their inability to compete on the battlefield.

These are substantial gains but they are not irreversible. But they show the hope for Afghanistan’s future if security can be consolidated.