Afghanistan presents NATO alliance with new challenges

Press Release for the 5th Annual Handelsblatt Conference Security
Policy and Defence Industry
(9 and 10 September 2008, Berlin)

Berlin/Düsseldorf, June 2008. NATO's ISAF security forces, which have
been stationed in Afghanistan for five years, are confronted with an
increasingly confusing situation. The latest assault on Afghanistan's
President Hamid Karsai and the escalation of violence, which has
reached its peak since the overthrow of the Islamist Taliban, have
led to a call for increasing and concentrating the armed forces at
the Hindu Kush. At the 5th Annual Handelsblatt Conference on
"Security Policy and Defence Industry" on 9 and 10 September 2008 in
Berlin, Minister of Defence Franz-Josef Jung as well as Afghanistan's
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Rangin Dadfar-Spanta, and Pakistan's
Secretary of Defence, Kamran Rasool, will explain their respective
countries' point of view of the situation in Afghanistan and discuss
the international efforts towards stabilising the region.

Minister of the Interior Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble will speak about the
distinction between internal and external security. The German
Chancellor's Security Policy Adviser, Dr. Christoph Heusgen, as well
as NATO Deputy Secretary General, Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero, and
the Inspector General of the German Armed Forces, General Wolfgang
Schneiderhan, will also speak at the conference, which has become
established as one of the most important events in Germany.

The economic aspects of security and defence will be presented by
Louis Gallois, Chief Executive Officer of EADS, among other speakers.

The continuously updated programme is available on the Internet at:
http://www.konferenz.de/pr-sipo08

More information about the programme

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