KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canada is poised for a discussion about its mission in Afghanistan that will establish "benchmarks'' for success in the ongoing effort to train local security forces in Kandahar province, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier suggested Sunday.
Bernier arrived at Kandahar Airfield after a day of high-level meetings with his French and Afghan counterparts and other diplomatic officials in Kabul on Saturday.
He said he was in the country to listen to the concerns of diplomats, humanitarian aid workers and military officials like Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche, the commander of Canadian forces in Afghanistan.
Bernier made specific reference to Canada's efforts in Kandahar to train the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police, a vital component of both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's long-term plan for Afghanistan and also Canada's eventual exit strategy.
"We have to go back in Canada and will have a discussion about the future of our mission, so we will have to set benchmarks on the training of the ANA, the training of the ANP,'' Bernier said.
"It was important to have a meeting with the general and other officials to understand pretty well what is the challenges that we face concerning the training of the national army and the national police.''
On Saturday, Bernier told a news conference in Kabul that Canada would be adhering to the benchmarks established in the Afghanistan Compact, established by donor countries during a conference in London in 2006.
"We have benchmarks for corruption, we have benchmarks for the training of the ANA -- it's all in the compact that we signed in 2006,'' he told the news conference.
Bernier later said he was talking specifically about Canadian benchmarks for the country's efforts in Kandahar province -- targets that would work within those established by the compact, which apply to Afghan security forces across the country.
Bernier didn't elaborate Sunday on the specific issues regarding training, but the compact itself calls for an ANA of some 80,000 soldiers by the end of 2010 that is fully trained, organized, equipped, "democratically accountable,'' "nationally respected'' and "ethnically balanced.''
"What's in the compact is in line with what we will do here,'' he said.
The ANA remains some 20,000 troops short of the 2011 target, according to a NATO report on the Afghan mission released earlier this month.
The report described the ANA, established in May 2002, as having grown in "size and capability, confidence and credibility'' as it continues to work alongside the soldiers of the International Security Assistance Force, the banner that flies over NATO's military mission.
"In many cases the ANA is now engaged in or leading major operations,'' the report said.
Earlier in the day, Bernier greeted French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on the tarmac and watched him clamber aboard new French Air Force jets for the benefit of the cameras.
Later, the pair boarded a helicopter for an afternoon visit to Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team at Camp Nathan Smith, on the other side of Kandahar city.
Bernier snipped the yellow ribbon and grinned for the local media at a newly built $111,000 training centre.
He later watched intently as Canadian mentors -- soldiers, police officers and corrections officials -- demonstrated the policing and counter-IED programs they provide for local security officers.
Insurgents plant IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, that frequently inflict casualties among Canadian and coalition forces as well as civilians in Afghanistan.
As much as Canada would like to be able to focus its entire mission in Afghanistan on development and rebuilding, it can't be done until the country is safe, Bernier said.
"You cannot have development when the situation is not secure, so we have to have security before,'' he said.
"We will put a little more emphasis on development, because we know at the end, people must be able to work, must be able to live, and to do what they dream to do.''
