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Afghanistan and Pakistan

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord McNally, earlier referred to the conditions. The three clear conditions do not relate to troops from our NATO allies. I will have to check, but I believe that they relate to extra troops from the Afghans themselves. If one looks at the Statement, I believe that it refers to extra Afghan troops, not to allied troops. In relation to the three conditions, I read briefly an extract from the Chief of the Defence Staff, which I cannot find just at the moment. He said that he is confident that the conditions will be met. As regards the timing, is the noble Lord saying that if our commanders on the ground and our military troops are saying, "We need more troops", we say, "Sorry, you have to wait for the Americans"? We are not saying that. We have put down three important conditions which do not relate to the Americans. They relate to three other things which we are confident will be met. I am sure that our troops will be on the ground in the not too distant future.