Select committee: International Relations and Defence Committee
Conclusion 120
2nd Report - The UK and Afghanistan
Published 13 Jan 2021
Paragraph 552
International Relations and Defence Committee The UK and Afghanistan All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The evidence we received demonstrated the challenges facing the Government on future security assistance to Afghanistan: A government with Taliban representation might not accept such assistance, and the UK and NATO Allies would need to consider what sort of assistance to provide to such a regime. If a peace deal was reached with the Taliban and the UK and international partners withdrew funding for the Afghan National Security Forces, this would critically undermine the viability of the Afghan forces. The UK and non-US NATO Allies are unlikely to remain in Afghanistan if the US withdraws its troops. The US presence is the largest in NATO; the end of its non-NATO mission is likely to result in the security situation deteriorating. We invite the Government to provide us with its assessment of these challenges.
From: International Relations and Defence Committee, 2nd Report - The UK and Afghanistan, paragraph 552, 13 January 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 12 March 2021 (deadline 13 March 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says Afghanistan "remains a priority" and agrees with a number of the Committee's conclusions, while stating that it does not judge counter-narcotics efforts to have "ultimately failed" and that the cut in aid spending is temporary.
- On a multinational approach, the government says it "agree[s] with the committee's recommendation that the UK should seek to reinforce the multinational approach" and "will continue to do so".
- On counter-narcotics, it does "not judge that UK and international counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan have 'ultimately failed'" but recognises "the many challenges which continue to inhibit all such efforts".
- On aid, it states it will "temporarily move to a target of spending 0.5%" of GNI on ODA rather than 0.7%, and "will return to 0.7% when the fiscal situation allows".
- On interpreters, the new Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy is "expected to be launched following changes to the immigration legislation in April 2021"; third-country relocations are "expected" not to be possible, with discretion applied "on a case-by-case basis".