Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policy of recent military defeats by Afghan forces; and what discussions he has had with his Afghan counterparts on the insurgency at Kunduz.

We enjoy a close security dialogue with the National Unity Government in Kabul. The Commander Joint Forces Command, the Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff and the Secretary of State for Defence, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sevenoaks (Mr Fallon) have all visited Afghanistan recently to discuss the security situation with Afghan counterparts. When the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) assumed full responsibility for national security at the end of 2014, we and they understood that there would inevitably be testing times ahead. The ANDSF have responded well. The Taliban attack on the city of Kunduz was a setback for ANDSF, but government forces have regained control of the city. NATO will be working with the Afghan Government to identify lessons from this incident and the fighting season more broadly. NATO and the UK remain committed partners of the Afghan Government. The Taliban should accept President Ghani’s invitation now to end the fighting and join the peace process.