LOCATION Astana

SPEAKER Sir Stewart Eldon

EVENT EAPC Security Forum, Astana

DATE 04/04/2008

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Common policies

It’s clear from what my colleagues on the panel have said that we share many common policies to assist in Afghanistan’s development.
We all want Afghanistan to be a source of stability in the region and beyond, so that its people, and their neighbours, can live in peace and prosperity.  We all know there can be no purely military solution to the situation there.  But so too can there be no purely non-military solution.

Militarily, NATO has a crucial role to play in support of the Afghan government, using the International Security Assistance Force to help create the space for civilian capacity building and development. We must pursue a Comprehensive Approach, with military effort providing the space for civil, political and developmental efforts to make a tangible impact.  But we cannot, in the long-term, impose security from outside.  In the short-term international forces will need to play a central role in delivering security in Afghanistan.  But we have no desire to have soldiers fighting in Afghanistan any longer than is necessary.

This developing international consensus is reflected in the UK strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, published by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in April this year. It sets out our commitment to a comprehensive and regional approach, involving all Afghanistan’s neighbours.

A simple vision

Our vision for Afghanistan is grounded in a simple idea.  For many hundreds of years, there has been an unstoppable flow of people, goods and ideas through Afghanistan, from and to all parts of the World. Afghanistan can and must return to what it once was - a commercial and cultural cross-roads at the heart of Asia.

If we cannot ignore history, then neither can we ignore geography.  International efforts in Afghanistan must involve all its neighbours and the wider region. The challenges of Afghanistan are the challenges of the region, and we all have a common interest in securing its future.

Challenges

Afghanistan’s challenges are serious, interconnected and global in scope.  Corruption; poor border controls; the trafficking of illicit narcotics; a lack of legal economic opportunities; and poor justice and rule of law capacity all contribute to an acute lack of security.   This affects the lives of Afghans in rural Helmand, Iranians in Zahedan, Kazakhs here in Astana, and British citizens 3000 miles away in London.   We are all in this together.

The effects on the United Kingdom are severe: about 90% of heroin in the UK comes from Afghanistan. Three quarters of the most serious terrorist plots targeting the UK have links back to the border areas of Pakistan, where Al Qaida and Taliban can cross the border with relative ease.

But the effects on the region are perhaps worse:

• Each day 3 or 4 Afghan National Police are killed;
• Since 2001 about 4,600 Pakistani security forces have died in attempts to counter terrorists and extremists;
• The recent Swat offensive has seen around two million people displaced;
• Over 3000 Iranian law enforcement officials have died trying to stop the trafficking of drugs into their country;
• Central Asia, too, faces the scourge of illicit narcotics and violent extremism.

The Role of the Neighbours

Ultimately, the people of Afghanistan will need to secure themselves from within. To do that they will need the help of their neighbours. Two central areas for assistance are illicit narcotics and economic development.

These two areas are closely interlinked.  Economic development will play an increasingly important role in reducing the trade in illicit narcotics. By working to reduce local narcotics demand; by cooperating on border management; by funding the training of police officers and border guards; and by reducing the regulatory barriers to cross-border trade, neighbouring countries can help Afghanistan tackle multiple challenges simultaneously.  

These kinds of initiatives, complemented by regular discussions on trade and by building and sharing infrastructure, will help reduce the incentives for narcotics production.  They will also undermine the nexus of funding, production and violence that exists between insurgent and trafficker, reducing the burdens on legitimate economic activity.  Reducing those burdens will increase the ability of neighbouring countries to trade with Afghanistan’s entrepreneurial people.

We have no wish to impose this vision on the people of Afghanistan and the wider region, and nor do we need to. There are already regional initiatives in place: the Economic Cooperation Organisation recently held its 10th summit, while Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan have carried out successful joint counter-narcotics operations.

In Kabul, we have supported work by the Afghan International Chambers of Commerce to bring together Afghan and Pakistani cross-border traders to agree practical measures to facilitate commerce. The UK’s Afghanistan Investment Climate Facility (AICF) - or ‘Harakat’ as it is becoming known in Afghanistan - is also helping, by cutting through impediments to trade.

These initiatives need to be backed by regular discussions between governments, including at events such as the ECO summit and the Regional Economic Cooperation Conference (last held in Islamabad in May). And projects such as the AICF, which I mentioned earlier, need to be set against improved regulatory frameworks (such as the Afghanistan-Pakistan Trade and Transit Agreement currently under negotiation).

There are also a number of important practical initiatives underway in the power and energy sector.  These include the CASA1000 power-sharing project between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and Afghanistan. We urge those involved, in this and other similar projects, to work to make them a reality, and so realise the enormous benefits they could bring to the people of the region.

I hope I’ve said enough to convince you that economic development is essential to the long term stability of both Afghanistan and the region as a whole.  It can move Afghanistan closer to its rightful place as an Asian crossroads, and begin the transformation of the country into a source of peace and prosperity.  But development can only take root in Afghanistan through careful and clear-sighted partnership with its neighbours.  That is why this EAPC Security Forum is so helpful in focussing attention on what needs to be done.

Notes for Editors

 

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