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Afghanistan

I welcome the Prime Minister's statement. When members of the International Development Committee were in Afghanistan at the end of October we visited not only Kabul but the rural area around it, and Helmand in the south and Balkh in the north. There was a recognition that there was a real commitment and a long-term strategy, which people in Afghanistan appreciate—and people in this country need to understand that. In particular, I welcome the Prime Minister's commitment to additional development and reconstruction funding of £450 million, and I urge the Secretary of State for International Development to make a statement in the House at an appropriate time as to how it will be deployed, and to resist the call from the Leader of the Opposition to concentrate all those resources in Helmand as we must instead understand that we have to build up the capacity of the Afghan Government across the whole country.