DUSHANBE, February 19, 2013, Asia-Plus -- The United Kingdom is currently considering several transit routes for the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan. Official London has reportedly begun a negotiating process with Dushanbe on using Tajik territory for the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan.
British Ambassador to Tajikistan, Mr. Robin Jeremy Ord-Smith, met here with Tajik Minister of Transport Nizom Hakimov last week to discuss these issues.
The Ministry of Transport (MoT)’s press center reports the sides discussed issues related to signing of a government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and the United Kingdom (UK) on transit route for the withdrawal of British troops and military property from Afghanistan.
The sides reportedly also considered the issue of speeding up the signing of a government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and the United Kingdom on an air communications between the two countries.
We will recall that British Prime Minister David Cameron stated in December last year that the UK will withdraw nearly 4,000 troops from Afghanistan in 2013.
According to Financial Times (FT), the prime minister’s announcement marks the start of the withdrawal of all UK combat troops from Afghanistan before the end of 2014. It is also the first stage in a reorientation of the UK’s military posture overseas, which will see Britain moving out of south Asia and increasingly focusing on new security threats that are emerging in north Africa and the Middle East.
The cut in UK forces means that Britain will remove nearly half of the 9,500 troops serving in Afghanistan by December 2013.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Nick Harvey, was in Tajikistan in March 2012 to discuss with Tajik leaders possible transit routes for the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan in 2014.
Harvey told journalists in Dushanbe after talks on March 2 that a proposed route for the troops'' withdrawal would go through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and therefore the cooperation between the three Central Asian countries is needed.
According to Harvey, members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) could leave behind some of their equipment in Afghanistan and possibly in the three Central Asian countries.
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