US President George W. Bush said the Northern Alliance, which have put the Taliban regime to flight in Afghanistan, would win no favours in a future Afghan government on the strength of their military victories. The President, in a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said prior agreements between the parties in Afghanistan remained in effect.
Asked whether battlefield victories had won the opposition pride of place at the bargaining table for a future government, Bush said there would be no preferential treatment.
There is no preferential place at the bargaining table. All people will be treated the same, he said. That's what we're working with our friends, the Russians, on, and that's the concept we're working on with the United Nations. And that's only fair. That's been the vision all along, he said.
Bush and Putin said they had spent a considerable part of their White House talks prior to the press conference focusing on a post-Taliban government and agreed that the Afghan people must decide their own fate.
Bureau Report