13:36 GMT, February 8, 2010 On 7 February, on his first day as NATO’s newly appointed Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan (SCR), Ambassador Mark Sedwill, was publically welcomed by his military counterpart, the Commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), General Stanley McChrystal, at a senior level briefing, at ISAF Headquarters in Kabul.

Ambassador Mark Sedwill was appointed as the new SCR by the NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, on 26 January. The SCR represents the political leadership of the Alliance in Kabul officially and publicly.

Ambassador Sedwill, sitting beside the Commander in a newly constructed operations room, thanked General McChrystal for the support and the recognition that their civilian and military functions will be integrated. “We all know that if we’re going to prevail here in Afghanistan that this campaign has to be military and civil and political and we have to support the Afghans in all those areas”, said Ambassador Sedwill.

The Ambassador intends to spend a significant portion of his day working with the senior staff in the operations room, to ensure that the governance and development work is being coordinated with the security effort. “We have to take the opportunity to build a genuinely joint and new, kind of campaign headquarters here at the ISAF headquarters and that’s what we intend to do working together as a complete team”.

Ambassador Sedwill, who was previously the British Ambassador to Afghanistan, has made it clear that he wants to bring more energy and coherence to the crucial civilian effort in Afghanistan by interacting directly with the Afghan Government, civil society, representatives of the international community and neighbouring countries. “We know this is the critical year, we have a great opportunity, we don’t have time to waste and I look forward to playing my part in driving this through to success so General (McChrystal) thank you, look forward joining you”, added the Ambassador.

Ambassador Sedwill succeeds Ambassador Fernando Gentilini who served as NATO’s fourth Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan from May 2008 to January 2010.