Harper speaks on Afghanistan, economy, in U.S. TV interview
WASHINGTON - Prime Minister Stephen Harper has elaborated on his remark that the Taliban in Afghanistan cannot be defeated on the battlefield.
Asked about it on the Fox News channel in Washington today, Harper said he meant there will always be some kind of insurgency in that country.
"I do believe you'll see some level of insurgency in Afghanistan for some time to come," Harper said.
" But we certainly want to see a situation where the Afghan government can handle that security situation on a day-to-day basis... where the insurgency is of a nature that it doesn't threaten the wider global community."
Harper also talked about the economy, saying the global downturn cannot be fixed without the major U.S. economic problems being solved.
"We have to fix the mess in the American and global financial sector, we cannot have recovery until we fix that," he said.
The Fox interview came as Harper is preparing to attend the G20 group of nations summit later this week in London.
He is then scheduled to attend a NATO meeting in Germany.
