Cameron visits troops in Afghanistan
David Cameron has arrived in Afghanistan in a surprise visit to British troops deployed in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
The Conservative leader said his trip, which was kept secret for security reasons, would be devoted to “listening, learning and showing our support for what is being done”.
His party has expressed concern in recent weeks about the resources available to British troops in the south of the country, where an outbreak of violence led to six soldiers being killed in the past two months.
Two weeks ago, defence secretary Des Browne announced the deployment of an extra 900 troops for southern Afghanistan, but Mr Cameron said the question of troop levels and equipment remained “ongoing issues”.
The Tories wanted to be able to ask “sensible, legitimate, reasonable” questions about it in parliament, he said, adding that today’s visit was also a chance to see for himself how well the government had responded to requests from the army.
But as he put on body armour as the Ministry of Defence plane in which he was flying came into land, Mr Cameron insisted the troops in Afghanistan had his full support.
“The purpose of this visit is extremely straightforward and simple,” he told the Press Association.
“It is to show support for what our troops are doing in Afghanistan and show that there is a cross-party consensus for the very difficult and important work that they are doing.
“The second purpose is to see for myself the challenges, the difficulties and the opportunities and to learn about what we are doing and how well it is working.”
Mr Cameron, who is travelling with shadow defence secretary Liam Fox, will today meet with military commanders and RAF crew members from Kandahar airfield, one of the UK’s three main bases in Afghanistan.
There are about 5,000 British troops stationed in the country, as part of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), and yesterday shadow foreign secretary William Hague urged ministers to persuade other Nato nations to send more troops.
But the Conservative leader refused to elaborate on this today, saying only: “Britain has got a very substantial contribution and it is important always to stress the multinational nature of what is being done in Afghanistan, with 36 countries involved.”
