British Foreign Secretary William Hague arrived on Saturday in Kabul in the first visit to the war—torn country by members of the new British government, a media report said.
Mr. Hague was accompanied by Defence Secretary Liam Fox and International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell for talks in a country in whose conflict 286 British soldiers have been killed since late 2001.
The three Tory ministers from the Conservative—Liberal coalition government are to meet on Saturday with top Afghan officials, including President Hamid Karzai, who himself recently visited Britain.
Meetings with the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, US General Stanley McChrystal, and other military leaders were also planned.
On their flight to Kabul, the secretaries said no big changes would occur in British policy on Afghanistan, but Mr. Fox told The Times newspaper he would like British troops to return home “as soon as possible.” Britain has deployed more than 9,000 soldiers to Afghanistan, which Mr. Fox said was the “limit.” The vast majority of those troops are in the south, the hotbed of Taliban activity.
