Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Bernard Jenkin (Conservative). It was answered on Monday, 16 July 2007 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Afghanistan

Question: When the Defence Committee recently visited Afghanistan we found 12 Mechanised Brigade in extremely good heart and determined to beat the Taliban, but is it not distressing that British armed forces bear the brunt while so many of our European allies fail to provide the military commitment that they should be obliged to provide under the NATO treaty? Will the Secretary of State tell the Prime Minister that he needs to spend every waking hour travelling the capitals of Europe to drum up more support for these operations? How is he able to spend time on anything other than his defence responsibilities?

Answer: The hon. Gentleman will be pleased to know that in the last week alone I have spoken to those involved in providing such forces in Berlin in the person of the German Minister of Defence, and in Paris in the person of the newly appointed Defence Minister, and, as I have already told the House, I had a long conversation with Javier Solana seeking further EU support on the civil side for what we are doing. So the hon. Gentleman can rest assured that despite my responsibilities in relation to Scotland I have not fallen down on this issue or the challenge that I identified some time ago in getting other countries to increase their support to us, particularly in the south of Afghanistan. I anticipate that we will see improvements in relation to that. For example, he will have noticed that the Danish Parliament has effectively agreed to send a battle group to Helmand, which will operate partly under our command in the central part of Helmand province and will make a significant contribution to our ability to continue the work of the Mechanised Brigade there, whose success and commitment I thank the hon. Gentleman for recognising.

Secondary information