Home »

Condoleezza Rice praises Canada?s sacrifice in Afghanistan

September 12, 2006

(CP)

STELLARTON, N.S.?U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the military campaign that Canada and other NATO countries are waging in Afghanistan will not fail.

Rice used a visit to Foreign Affairs minister Peter MacKay?s riding today to note the progress that has been made in bringing freedom to Afghanistan against Taliban resistance.

?Together, Canada, the United States, the countries of NATO will be those determined friends and the people of Afghanistan will succeed,? she said in an address to dignitaries at Stellarton?s Museum of Industry.

?And when they succeed, we will all be safer because no longer will Afghanistan ever again be a safe harbour for terror.?

MacKay stressed the level of co-operation on trade, security, and defence between Canada and the United States as he promised to stay the course in Afghanistan.

?The fight against terrorism will be a long-term campaign to provide greater security for our citizens and for our way of life,? he said.

Since taking office earlier this year, the Conservative government has focused on improving co-operation with the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush after strains in the relationship when the Liberals were in power.

MacKay said the two governments may sometimes disagree, but Canada and the U.S. are allies because of a ?deep sense of kinship? the two countries share.

?We will remain the best of friends, but we may not always agree, we will certainly find a way to find solutions that work for the benefit of both nations,? MacKay said.

Rice is finishing up a two-day trip to Nova Scotia to thank Canadians for their help on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on her country.

During a joint news conference today, Rice and MacKay said they never discussed sending more Canadian troops to Afghanistan after NATO?s top general last week called for more soldiers.

But MacKay said Canada is committed to remaining in Afghanistan.

?We cannot retreat,? he said. ?There?s an old Maritime expression: ?Boats are safe in the harbour, but that?s not what they?re made for.??

At MacKay?s invitation, Rice visited Stellarton, where she said the Canadian-American ?alliance? has never been stronger.

?Though our alliance can be tested, it can never be bent, it can never be broken,? she said. ?Because, make no mistake, this is an alliance based on the most solid of foundations.?

But Rice said the freedom that Canadians and Americans enjoy increasingly depends on ?freedom in other lands.?

She said the U.S. is now engaged in a ?great global struggle to determine what ideas will organize the 21st century.?

As a result, Canada?s alliance with the United States must become global in scope, she stressed.

?We are employing our alliance to serve great purposes,? she said, citing the work of Canadian and American troops and officials in Haiti, Iraq, and Afghanistan.