24 February 2009
Afghan, Pakistani Officials Join White House Strategy Talks, February 24, 2009(Holbrooke calls for “new, intense, engaged diplomacy” in South Asia)
By David McKeeby
Staff Writer
Washington — Afghanistan and Pakistan have sent top officials to help the Obama administration build a newly reinvigorated international security partnership to eliminate terrorist safe havens in South Asia and help communities across the region emerge from decades of war and poverty.
“Victory, as defined in purely military terms, is not achievable,” Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said in a February 18 PBS News Hour interview announcing the visits, which he said are a key component of “a new, intense, engaged diplomacy designed to put Afghanistan and Pakistan into a larger regional context and move forward to engage other countries in the effort to stabilize this incredibly volatile region.”
The Afghan delegation, led by Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta, and the Pakistani delegation, led by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, will meet with members of the Obama administration, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, special representative Holbrooke and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and top U.S. lawmakers.
“No one should expect a quick success here. But the president made clear our commitment,” Holbrooke said.
Pakistani Army Chief of Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is expected to join in the talks, as are several top Afghan security and development officials, including the defense minister, General Abdul Rahim Wardak, Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar, local governance chief Jelani Popal, and Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Zahir Tanin.
Clinton met separately with Qureshi on February 24, and will host both delegations for a working dinner February 25. She will meet with Spanta ahead of trilateral U.S.-Afghan-Pakistani talks February 26. Delegation members are also expected to meet with the leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the House intelligence and armed services committees and other committees, as well as deliver speeches at several Washington-area research institutions.
“We obviously want to hear from a wide variety of voices about the situation with regard to Afghanistan and Pakistan. And the secretary looks forward to meeting with both ministers, hearing their views, and of course, sharing our views on what we believe is going on,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood said February 24. “We are concerned about the situation in that region, and we want to do what we can to try to make things better.”
The visits are the latest step in the Obama administration’s effort to engage allies and partners worldwide in forging a new way forward in Afghanistan, a challenge he has identified as a top foreign policy priority. (See “Analysis: Afghanistan Needs the World’s Help.”)
“There is no answer in Afghanistan that does not confront the al-Qaida and Taliban bases along the border,” Obama said January 22. “And there will be no lasting peace unless we expand spheres of opportunity for the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
Upon taking office, Obama named Holbrooke as his special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and ordered a comprehensive strategic review of U.S. policy in the region. Obama also ordered 17,000 additional U.S. troops to the region in an effort to reinforce the 41-nation, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force as Afghans prepare for elections in August.
The White House working group overseeing the review will draw from several recent analyses produced by the president’s National Security Council, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, and the U.S. military’s Central Command.
Another key ingredient to the review has been close consultations with a wide range of allies. Afghanistan has topped the agenda in several of Obama’s phone calls to world leaders as well as on his first foreign visit to northern neighbor Canada. Vice President Biden discussed Afghanistan with world leaders on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Afghanistan has figured prominently in Secretary Clinton’s conversations with her European counterparts. Holbrooke recently completed his first round of consultations in the region, visiting Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. Most recently, Gates reported that 20 nations pledged expanded support to Afghanistan during a February 20 gathering of NATO defense ministers in Poland. (See “Allies Agree to Boost Afghanistan Aid.”)
But as talks focus on eliminating terrorist safe havens in the border region, another likely topic will be a recently concluded government truce in Pakistan’s Swat Valley with Taliban-linked extremists who have abducted and murdered police officers and area residents, destroyed more than 200 girls’ schools, and fought Pakistani security forces to a standstill, killing 1,500 people and displacing thousands more.
“We're troubled and confused, in a sense, about what happened in Swat because it is not an encouraging trend,” Holbrooke said, noting that similar cease-fires in the past have allowed extremists to rest and rearm. “We do not want to see territory ceded to the bad guys, and the people who took over Swat are very bad people.”
Pakistan’s Qureshi defended the deal as a “local solution to a local problem.”
The White House expects to complete its Afghan policy review before Obama travels to Europe in April for the NATO 60th Anniversary Summit, hosted by France and Germany.
Holbrooke’s remarks are available on America.gov.
What actions do you think President Obama should take to promote security in South Asia? Comment on America.gov’s blog.
