KABUL): The foundation stone of a $42 million UK-funded academy for Afghan National Army (ANA) officers was laid in the capital Kabul on Thursday.
Chief of Army Staff Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, ISAF’s Deputy Commander Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw and Kabul-based ambassadors of several countries participated in the launching ceremony.
Gen. Aminullah Karim, commander of the Defence University, said the institution — patterned on the UK’s Royal Military Academy Sandhurst — would be completed in a year.
Graduates from Kabul and other Afghan universities will begin to get admissions in October 2013. He said initially foreign mentors would train 1,500 a year, including 10 percent females.
Gen. Bradshaw recalled British Foreign Minister David Cameron, during his visit to Kabul in July, had promised President Hamid Karzai that his government would fund the construction of the military institute in Kabul.
Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi called the foundation stone-laying ceremony a stride toward a brilliant future for the ANA. Australia, Norway, Denmark and New Zealand have offered help in the area of training and advice.
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