MAZAR-E-SHARIF (PAN): Germany has welcomed the speech delivered by President Hamid Karzai after his oath-taking ceremony on Thursday.
Talking to journalists in this northern city after ground-breaking ceremony of a police training centre on Thursday evening, junior foreign minister of Germany Guido Wester Wele said his country was supporting Karzais statement.
He said Karzais promise regarding end to corruption and reforms in the administration was important and they were fully supporting his plans.
He said the Afghan president should keep national unity in mind while constituting his new administration.
He said the political problems of the country were related to Afghans and they (Germans) were living as guests in Afghanistan and would never interfere in the political affairs.
He said policemen from all over the northern zone would get training at the police training centre once it was completed. The training centre is being constructed close to the Mazar-e-Sharif airport.
The German minister said the centre was a branch of the police training centre in Kabul and it would be accomplished in 2010. Without disclosing the expenditures, he said around 500 policemen would be able to get training at the centre at a time.
He said Germany had trained 30,000 policemen in 2009 at the cost of 43.2 million euros. He said training of police was necessary for peace in the country and Germany was playing its part in this regard.
Deputy governor of Balkh Muhammad Zahir Wahdat thanked the German government for its assistance in the northern zone and particularly Balkh province. He said Germany had done a lot in reconstruction. He referred to the reconstruction of the airport in Balkh and construction of a 400-bed hospital in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
dk
