{"id":34577,"date":"2013-11-11T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=5b6b878e1e29636f4ceab658b9c3a9be"},"modified":"2013-11-11T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T18:00:00","slug":"news-story-philip-hammond-joins-afghan-president-at-military-academy-opening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=34577","title":{"rendered":"News story: Philip Hammond joins Afghan president at military academy opening"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>The formal opening marks a significant step in Britain\u2019s long-term commitment to a stable future for the country.<\/p>\n<p>Having paid his respects at a <a href=\"\/government\/news\/duke-of-york-and-defence-secretary-pay-respects-at-remembrance-service-in-afghanistan\">remembrance service in Camp Bastion<\/a> yesterday, Mr Hammond flew from Helmand province this morning to join President Karzai at Qargha, west of Kabul. There, at the Afghan National Army Officer Academy (<abbr title=\"Afghan National Army Officer Academy\">ANAOA<\/abbr>), he saw teaching rooms, living spaces and training areas where hundreds of officer cadets have recently started training, before addressing more than 1,000 members of the Afghan National Army (<abbr title=\"Afghan National Army\">ANA<\/abbr>) at the official launch of the academy. <\/p>\n<p>There are 265 recruits in the first intake, narrowed down from more than 10,000 initial applications. Candidates will progress through a 42-week course designed to give them essential leadership skills to take into battle. It is inspired by the British Army\u2019s <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.army.mod.uk\/training_education\/24475.aspx\">Royal Military Academy Sandhurst<\/a> model, and adapted to include courses that are Afghanistan-focused. <\/p>\n<p>Following the launch Mr Hammond attended an Armistice Day service at the International Security Assistance Force headquarters in Kabul.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Defence Secretary lays a wreath during the remembrance service held at Camp Bastion\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/18385\/Hammond_Bastion_remebrance.jpg\"><\/div><figcaption>The Defence Secretary lays a wreath during the remembrance service held at Camp Bastion [Picture: Corporal Ross Fernie, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Mr Hammond said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It was a pleasure being here to witness the official opening of the Afghan National Army Officer Academy. The efforts that have brought the academy to this point have been significant.<\/p>\n<p>Modelled on the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, this academy will provide world-class training. It will teach the importance of leadership, of self-reliance, of personal discipline, of dedication and of service to fellow soldiers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">This will help ensure the Afghan officers and those training them will be of the highest quality, helping sustain the progress made in building a capable and professional force.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Warrant Officer Class 1 Peter Witkowski, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, is the <abbr title=\"Afghan National Army Officer Academy\">ANAOA<\/abbr> sergeant major mentor. He said: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s fantastic here. It\u2019s a great opportunity, particularly with the drawdown within Afghanistan, to be able to provide more support and assistance, particularly mentoring support for the <abbr title=\"Afghan National Army\">ANA<\/abbr> beyond 2014 here in Qargha.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">The recruits who leave here will be posted to combat units around Afghanistan and will have a really important job. They will be leading young soldiers on operations and will work hard to improve stability in their country.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The UK Defence Secretary has joined President Hamid Karzai at the formal opening of the Afghan National Army Officer Academy in Kabul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34599,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34577\/revisions\/34599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}