Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt in an exclusive interview with TOLOnews urged the Taliban insurgents to respect the Afghan people's desire for a peaceful Presidential election.
Carl Bildt termed the concerns of Afghans for the upcoming Presidential election as 'valid' and said that the election will decide the future of Afghanistan.
The Swedish Foreign Minister expressed his hopes for a successful election by saying that best and fair practice would be adopted in the upcoming Afghan Presidential election.
The Minister is also hopeful for a fruitful peace negotiation so that the people can go to polls with full security in the country.
"I would hope that there would be a possibility to start real peace negotiations. But my expectation, to be quite honest is that the Presidential election is conducted peacefully and in a transparent manner. Now, the Taliban are in the middle of their so called 'spring offensive', I hope they will respect the fact that the people of Afghanistan want to go to polls and elect their new President. Then only I think we are in a new situation, after the elections next year," Carl Bildt told TOLOnews.
Carl Bildt said that the upcoming Presidential election should be conducted in a transparent manner so as to secure the future of Afghanistan.
Talking about the upcoming elections Bildt said, "I think, the critical thing is the Presidential election, which should be conducted in a decent way so that it produces a positive result and is accepted as legitimate by all significant sectors of the Afghan society. The election will decide the future of Afghanistan. In the long term, I think the critical issue is to get the country on the right foot."
Sweden was the first country that promised non-military support to Afghanistan post 2014 at the Tokyo Conference.
Currently, Sweden has stationed nearly 300 troops in the northern Balkh province of Afghanistan and it is expected that half of these troops will remain in Afghanistan to train the Afghan security forces post 2014.