The UK Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Mr Bill Rammel, said in Abuja on Monday in a spech at the opening of a Defence and Security course at the Nationa l Defence College that the cooperation would be to review the non-proliferation treaty to ensure a successful outcome.
'I know Nigeria is taking up a two-year membership of a non-permanent seat of the UN Security Country from this January and I think we will want to work with Nigeria as a friend and as an ally particularly on the review of the non-proliferation treaty to ensure a successful outcome,' Mr Rammel said.
'I also think that we will want to work with Nigeria and other African countries to improve on Africa as a whole. One thing I am very proud of as a current member of the Labour Gover nment in the UK is that we made reform and support for Africa a priority when we held the G8 presidency 2005. We made it one of our top two priorities to substan t ially increase our aid effort and financial aid support for Africa.
'Along with that comes reform and tackling some of the underlining problems which require political solution. So we very much have worked and will want to continue to work with Nigeria and other Africa countries to improve on reform in Africa.'
Mr Rammel stated that the solution to tackling Africa's problems lies in the total commitment of the political class to fight corruption to the extent that the ordinary people will feel the benefits of being endowed with natural resources.
He said his country had secured £40,000 to run stabilization re's need to for political approach as well. And we have said that the process led by the Afghan gov e rnment of reaching out to the moderate Taliban who are prepared to renounce violence and become part of the solution in Afghanistan has to be part of that way for ward as well.
'And with President Hamid Karzai's re-election that was one of the three challenges that our Prime Minister laid down to Karzai.'
These are 'to recruit 5,000 Afghans monthly to the Afghan Army so that we and others will eventually leave the country; for Karzai's government to tackle corruption; and reaching out to those moderate elements of the Taliban willing to denounce terrorism. That is what is needed and that is what we support'.
Abuja - 24/11/2009
Pana
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