Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
November 26, 2016
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said his country remained committed to Afghanistan “for the long haul.”
Johnson rejected that Britain’s exit from the European Union and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s shock election victory would lead to the West reducing its engagement with countries like Afghanistan.
“If the question is do I think that the Western world is going to start withdrawing or turning in on itself, then the answer is emphatically no, I don’t think so,” Johnson told reporters on November 26 in Kabul, where he made an overnight visit, his first, after a trip to neighboring Pakistan.
“That certainly won’t be the situation with the United Kingdom,” he added.
During his brief visit, Johnson met with President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.
Johnson also visited Kabul University, where he attended a performance of a scene from Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth in Dari, as well as the British cemetery, with its memorial to more than 450 British soldiers killed in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP