Germany and Afghans plan partnership treaty

Dec 6, 2011, 10:48 GMT

Berlin - Germany will negotiate a partnership treaty with Afghanistan with an emphasis on training Afghan police and mining engineers, the two nations' leaders said Tuesday in Berlin.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who had told an international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn the previous day that Kabul needed billions of dollars in aid, said, 'This is something that Afghanistan has been seeking for a long time.'

'What will be in it is of course still up for negotiation with the Afghan side, but I could well imagine that in addition to a commitment to further training for the security forces, the topic of vocational training will play a big role,' Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

She said this would help provide jobs to unemployed youth, and called for 'fair exploitation of Afghan national resources.'

'Germany has got a lot of experience in this through its schools of mines. We have a lot of experience in training engineers,' she said after a working breakfast with Karzai at her office.

'Germany believes it has a responsibility for Afghanistan's future,' she said.

International forces will withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, leaving Karzai's government to deal with Taliban insurgents. In Bonn, Merkel bluntly urged Karzai to do more to stop corruption and clamp down on drug trafficking.

Karzai said they had 'very frank discussions' at the breakfast. To a question about corruption, he said, 'The most important contribution to an environment where corruption is less and less in Afghanistan is the strengthening of the civil services.'

He said public servants needed to become apolitical and be given security in their jobs.

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