31 March 2009
Clinton Calls for Renewed Global Engagement in Afghanistan, March 31, 2009(Diplomacy, defense, development key to stabilizing South Asia)
By David McKeeby
Staff Writer
Washington — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling for a renewed global commitment to stabilizing Afghanistan and the Pakistan border region. “What happens in Afghanistan matters to us all.”
“Afghanistan has always been a crossroads of civilization, and today we find our fate converging in those plains and mountains that are so far and yet so near in this interconnected world to all of us,” Clinton said March 31 at the International Conference on Afghanistan in The Hague, Netherlands.
Clinton joined representatives from more than 80 nations and international organizations at the U.N.-sponsored event, aimed at raising $200 million to fund Afghanistan’s August elections and bringing the struggling South Asian nation’s neighbors together in a regional approach to building peace and security.
Open, free and fair elections are essential to Afghanistan’s success, Clinton said, announcing America’s $40 million contribution to the international fund.
For the United States, the conference represented an opportunity to win international support for the Obama administration’s new “Af-Pak” strategy, which uses diplomacy, development and defense to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida and the Taliban insurgency. (See “New Afghan-Pakistan Plan a Comprehensive Strategy, Obama Says.”)
The new plan, announced at the White House March 27, was the product of an intensive policy review and close consultations with the Afghan and Pakistani governments, the United Nations, the European Union and with U.S. allies taking part in the 41-nation, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Clinton said. Observers say the wide-ranging consultations during the policy review and even the conference itself — proposed by Secretary Clinton during a visit to Brussels on March 5 — represent America’s renewed commitment to multilateral diplomacy under the Obama administration.
With insurgent attacks in Afghanistan at an all-time high, immediate security improvements will be essential, Clinton said. The new plan calls for 4,000 additional U.S. forces dedicated to training a new generation of Afghan soldiers and police officers, but more help is needed.
“We should provide every army and police unit in Afghanistan with an international partner that can provide training and help build capacity,” Clinton said, calling for a 134,000-strong Afghan army and 82,000-strong police force by 2011. “These steps will provide the people of Afghanistan with an opportunity to fight and win their own battle for their nation’s future.”
Clinton also endorsed proposals by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to promote Afghan political reconciliation with militants willing to lay down their weapons, support the constitution and rejoin society. Regional experts estimate that up to 70 percent of insurgent gunmen are motivated primarily by Taliban payments to target ISAF forces and Afghan civilians.
At the same time, Clinton said, the Afghan government remains a work in progress, in need of further international support to promote greater transparency and effectiveness and win the Afghan public’s trust.
“We must demand accountability from ourselves and from the Afghan government,” Clinton said. “Corruption is a cancer as dangerous to long-term success as the Taliban or al-Qaida. A government that cannot deliver accountable services for its people is a terrorist’s best recruiting tool.”
Afghanistan’s future lies in its people, Clinton said, and they need the world’s help to strengthen their economy. “They know how to rebuild their country, but they need the raw material of progress — roads, public institutions, schools, hospitals, irrigation and agriculture,” Clinton said, reaffirming America’s support for the government of Afghanistan’s National Development Strategy, its National Solidarity Program, and other initiatives that help Afghans improve their lives and strengthen their communities.
No plan will be effective in Afghanistan without addressing conditions across the border in Pakistan, Clinton said. While the new U.S. plan seeks an expanded civilian development presence in Afghanistan, Obama is also asking Congress to approve $7.5 billion in direct support to Pakistan over the next five years. The funds would be used to build schools, roads and hospitals as well as to strengthen Pakistan’s democracy.
The conference also offered an opportunity for the United States to engage Iran — another top U.S. diplomatic priority. Clinton told participants that Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, held a “brief and cordial exchange” on the conference sidelines with Tehran’s top representative, Deputy Foreign Minister Medhi Akhundzadeh.
Iranian officials welcomed efforts to intensify regional coordination and pledged support for reconstruction and efforts to stop the Afghan opium trade that has flooded into Iran in recent years, fueling addiction while financing the Taliban insurgency. (See “Stabilizing Afghanistan Common Challenge for America and Iran.”)
“The questions of border security and in particular the transit of narcotics across the border from Afghanistan to Iran is a worry that the Iranians have which we share, and we will look for ways to cooperate with them,” Clinton said.
America’s new Afghanistan strategy will top the agenda when President Obama travels to the NATO 60th Anniversary Summit April 3–4, hosted by France and Germany.
A transcript of Clinton's remarks is available on America.gov.
