Tirana set on the mission in Afghanistan

TIRANA, March 13 – Albania lost its first soldier in the Afghanistan mission last month.
But it has officially repeated that they will remain there until NATO decides otherwise.
In another reconfirmation the Foreign Ministry issued a statement recently on that issue.
It says that “Albania remains fully committed to support the efforts of its international partners in achieving stability, peace and democracy in Afghanistan. Despite the incident of 20 February, when a soldier of the Albanian Special Forces lost his life and another one was heavily wounded, Albania will continue its contribution to helping the people and the government of Afghanistan.”
Albania set a financial contribution of $10,000 to support a project of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for the training of Afghan female police officers. This project will be implemented by the OSCE in the framework of the Organization’s efforts to strengthen the capacities of the Afghan law enforcement agencies, and will also be financially supported by the United States of America.
It is part of an all-inclusive assistance package that the OSCE will provide to Afghanistan in the period of 2012-14.
The package aims to strengthen the institutions of Afghanistan before transferring the competences concerning country security, from the international forces to local authorities.
Albania has 265 troops in Afghanistan serving in six-month terms.