Rattlesnake Ridge      

 
      BFF

“The European Union agreed Monday to negotiate a partnership pact with Afghanistan including counter-terrorism, development and fighting drugs, ahead of the departure of NATO combat troops in 2014. EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels gave the European Commission and EU chief diplomat Catherine Ashton a mandate to negotiate a “Cooperation Agreement on Partnership and Development” with the Afghan government. “There is a need to plan for what happens after transition to Afghan security control in 2014 and the continued involvement and support of the European Union for Afghanistan,” said British Foreign Secretary William Hague. NATO-led combat troops are gradually withdrawing from Afghanistan with the aim of handing Afghan security forces full control of the battle against the Taliban in three years. “The international engagement in Afghanistan is evolving from its focus on security and stabilization towards political and economic cooperation,” EU foreign ministers said in a statement. The EU and its 27 member states provide around one billion euros a year in assistance to Afghanistan…………”

Europe and Afghanistan have an even tighter trade relation: that of drugs. Afghanistan is the major source of drugs to Europe. It is smuggled from Pakistan and Afghanistan and through Iran and Turkey, among other routes. Maybe Catherine Ashton and the Taliban Salafi mullahs will get together and smoke the “peace pipe” from the local poppy, singing Kumbaya as they drift toward loftier heights of Euro-Afghan cooperation.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]