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Other than i know the approach is going to be, as i said, similar to what we have had success wells, as secretary mattis describes it. it s a by, with and through approach. that s part of why the need for step up and troop levels is so we can now at the battalion level organize and help the afghan army fight in a different way with close ground advisement at the battalion level and the ability to call in support on a more timely basis as needed to ensure victory as opposed to either stale mate or defeat. with respect to the comment about russia, to the extent russia is supplying arms to the taliban, that is a violation, obviously, of international norm, violation of u.n. security council norms. we certainly would object to that and call russia s attention to that. if anyone s going to supply arms, it needs to be through the afghan government. in terms of our footprint on the ground, we have very competent ....
Operate anywhere in afghanistan now or in the future. mr. secretary, you mentioned the force protection concerns and ambassador bass going to afghanistan and the discussions. but how are you going to get someone who is able to go out beyond the wire and negotiate functionally, regularly in that weekly basis with individuals where you can t force protection? we are going to have to improve the security environment. the environment today is not conducive to carrying out those types of activities. you re exactly right. so part of what we re going to have to do is first ensure we re ready to engage when conditions permit us to engage. why pakistan is very important in this discussion. pakistan can facilitate much of that discussion. and there are other reasonable players to which this particular conflict and this unstable situation in afghanistan are important. we ve had discussions with the ....
Chinese about a role they might be able to play. we ve had discussions with the russians about the role they could play if they choose to. and certainly reasonable players in the gulf. gcc member countries are very interested in seeing this area in afghanistan stablized as well. so there are a lot of partners out here on the troop that i think will have important roles they can play. ultimately it comes down to the two parties. the afghan government and the taliban representatives. thanks, mr. secretary. going back to pakistan, officials for quite some time, democratic and republican administrations have tried to get the government to stop giving safe haven to the network terrorist group. what leverage do you think you have? well, i think it s obviously we have some leverage that s been discussed in terms of the amount of aid and military systems we give them, their ....
What used to be known as the clear hold and build strategy. in other words, you clear, you will hold and we won t build, you will. so if that s correct, what happens to the anti-corruption efforts that you mentioned, the good governance, the counter narcotics, the education programs? what happens to those? and more specifically, what s that gonna mean for particularly afghan women and girls who have been assured for the last 16 years by two separate administrations that they wouldn t be abandoned. i don t want to suggest that there s that dramatic a difference in terms of our expectations for afghan government performance. as you point out, there s been enormous strides achieved in afghanistan, both in terms of the numbers of millions of children that are in school being educated, the role of women in the afghan economy now has been dramatically changed. i don t expect any of that to be ....
Afghanistan to provide safe haven for terrorists and accommodates all of the groups inside afghanistan, ethnic groups and others. how they want to organize themselves is up to them, but we have recognize their culture is a tribal culture and their history accommodates the nature of those relationships. there s no reason their government cannot accommodate that as well. we want to facilitate a peace process and facilitate them coming to some conclusion around how they want to govern themselves. that s really the essence of the strategy. before i take your questions, i do want to make one comment on north korea. i think it is worth noting that we have had no missile launches or provocative acts on the part of north korea since the unanimous adoption of the u.n. security council resolution. i want to take note of that. i want to acknowledge it. ....