KABUL - At an exclusive interview with Tolo news, German Foreign Minister said Afghan reconciliation and reintegration process would result in a positive outcome. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle reassured that the German government would not forget Afghanistan beyond the year 2014, when security transition to Afghan lead is expected to be completed. Mr Guido Westerwelle said there might have been some setbacks in the transition process, but he said he thinks there has been progress in the process.

"I can assure you that the German government will not forget our solidarity and our engagement in Afghanistan in the years beyond 2014," he said. He said after security handover process is completed by the end of 2014, Germany will still be in Afghanistan with a shift in its engagement.

"The kind of and the field of our engagement will change after 2014," he said. He said Germany is happy to feel proud to host the forthcoming Bonn conference on Afghanistan.
"We are glad and of course we are also proud to be the host of the next Afghanistan conference at the end of this year, first of December in Germany," he said while insisting the conference will be held under the full and transparent lead of Afghan government.

Negotiation and engaging through political process with opposition is something that could work for a peaceful solution not only in Afghanistan, but for every other nation, he said. "We have three topics on the agenda. The first one is transition and the progress in transition, the second of course is the reconciliation and reintegration, the political process is crucial for every peaceful solution for Afghanistan and the third is that we want to specify and to underline again that our engagement and the engagement of the international community will not finish in the year 2014," he said.

Germany has around 5,000 soldiers in Afghanistan with most of them stationed in the relatively peaceful northern regions of the country. Meanwhile, Afghan High Peace Council that was set up by President Karzai to broker peace with the Taliban has called on the Taliban to take warnings of the international community seriously.
A senior member of the peace council, Mohammad Ismail Qasemyar, remarked that political, military and security conditions are fragile in the country and the Taliban should as soon as possible become ready for negotiations.