New Danish foreign minister visits troops in Afghanistan

Tue, 23 Mar 2010

Copenhagen - Danish Foreign Minister Lene Espersen, who took office a month ago after a cabinet reshuffle, on Tuesday visited Danish troops in southern Afghanistan.

The visit was conducted under tight secrecy and news of it was withheld for several hours, the Danish news agency Ritzau reported.

"It is important for me to see with my own eyes the conditions the troops are serving in," Espersen was quoted as saying during her visit to a Danish camp in the restive Helmand province.

The foreign minister arrived in Afghanistan on Monday and met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and US General Stanley McChrystal, head of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Espersen also inspected a Danish armored vehicle that was hit by a roadside bomb on Monday. No one was reported injured in the blast.

In Denmark, parliament is preparing for talks on the Scandinavian country's continued engagement in Afghanistan.

The minority government and their parliamentary backers, the Danish People's Party, have so far rejected setting a date for a Danish troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, as called for by the main opposition Social Democrats and others.

Denmark has a 750-strong force based mainly in Helmand. Thirty-one Danish soldiers have been killed since 2002.

The cabinet reshuffle saw Espersen, 44, the leader of the Conservative Party, become Denmark's first female foreign minister.

Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen also named Gitte Lillelund Bech, 41, from his center-right Liberal Party, as Denmark's first female defense minister.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/315449,new-danish-foreign-minister-visits-troops-in-afghanistan.html.