Opening remarks

(As prepared for delivery)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to be with you today, and to share the NATO perspective with such distinguished panel members.  I look forward to profiting from their views, as well as from yours.

I feel a special attachment to the Central Asia region, in part because I began my career as a lowly Second Secretary at the US Embassy in Moscow.  I was there when the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan rocked its relationship with the West. 

When the Soviets withdrew in 1989, the logic of the Cold War led us to believe that we had won.  The fall of the Berlin Wall strengthened that belief.  As all eyes focused on events in Europe, the international community forgot about Afghanistan.  The country became a failed state and a sanctuary for extremism and international terrorism, with terrible consequences that we experienced on 9/11 – along with the horrors that befell the Afghan people under the Taliban regime.
Today I can affirm that NATO, as part of the international community, has learned the lessons of the 1990s.  We remain committed to Afghanistan, and to helping Afghans build a peaceful, stable, and secure future. 

The NATO-led ISAF mission in Afghanistan is now nearly twelve years old, and it is useful to take stock of what we’ve accomplished.  In the blur of the daily news cycle, we sometimes only hear about suicide bombings and insider attacks. Some commentators even imply that after transition, the Taliban are destined to draw Afghans back into a natural state of extremism and intolerance.  This is a slur against the Afghans, and it also represents a misreading of Afghan history.

We forget that before communism and the Soviet invasion, Afghan cities bubbled with movie theatres, shiny automobiles, and a prosperous middle class.  Kabul was the center of a sophisticated and dynamic culture at the heart of Asia.  Then years of insurgency, civil war, and international neglect devastated the country and its capital. 

It was only this state of chaos that allowed the Taliban to come to power.  Their rise was not natural or inevitable.  It was, in fact, an accident of history.

Today the Taliban are weak, scattered, and demoralized.  The notion that they could reconquer the country is not just dubious from a military perspective.  It fails to recognise how Afghan society has changed since the dark days of the mid-1990s.

Kabul is once again a bustling metropolis of 5 million people.  We see levels of health care, education, and economic development that were unthinkable only ten years ago.  Eight million children go to school, over a third of them girls.  The economy is growing at about 6% a year. 

Afghan security forces are in the lead in providing security for three quarters of the country’s population. In most of those areas, security is stable or improving. By the end of 2014, the Afghan National Security Forces will be 352,000 strong and will have full security responsibility across Afghanistan.  

Once the transition to full Afghan security responsibility is complete, ISAF’s combat mission will end. But NATO’s commitment to Afghanistan will continue. Last month, Allied Defence Ministers approved the framework for a new NATO-led mission that will focus on providing training, advice and assistance to the Afghan Security Forces after 2014.  This training mission is NATO’s pledge to Afghanistan’s future.  

Security, however, is only part of the problem, and NATO is only part of the solution.  Afghanistan needs continued investment and international support, so that Afghans can build on the gains we have made together.

That is why the international community, and the countries of the region, must keep the pledges they have made and continue to provide the reconstruction and development assistance that Afghanistan needs, both now and beyond 2014.

Fortunately, we’ve made a good start.  Last July, in Tokyo, countries around the world pledged their help looking well into the next decade.  And the Kabul Conference in June sent a clear message that Afghanistan’s neighbours will play a constructive role.

This regional dimension is important. By working more closely together, Afghanistan and its neighbours can prevent the re-creation of havens for terrorism and other illegal activities such as narcotics production.  For that reason, the Heart of Asia process is an important step towards building cooperation and understanding.

NATO’s regional partnerships also have a role to play. Security is the foundation of prosperity, and with the goal of enhancing security, NATO has built partnerships with all Central Asian countries, as well as with Pakistan and Russia. 

These partners have already provided considerable support, particularly in the areas of transit arrangements and counter-narcotics.  And I hope that they will do even more post-2014, for example in terms of economic cooperation, investment, trade, and border security. 

I also hope that Pakistan, in particular, will understand that stability and security in Afghanistan are in its own long-term interests, and that it, too, will play its part in helping the region to fulfil its enormous potential.

The French economist Bastiat is believed to have written that “if goods don’t cross borders, soldiers will.”  Beyond 2014, with the help of our regional partners, we can help to ensure that Afghanistan is a crossroads not for soldiers, but for goods and ideas.
Finally, Afghanistan’s leaders have pledged to improve governance, fight corruption, conduct fair elections, uphold the constitution, and ensure the protection of human rights, including the rights of women.    These pledges must now be fulfilled. 

The 2014 elections will be a crucial test. They must be inclusive, transparent, and credible. The Afghan people expect their leaders to live up to their commitments, and so do Allies.  We made that very clear during the recent trip of the North Atlantic Council and several of our partners to Afghanistan.

Ladies and gentlemen,
I will end my remarks today by urging everyone to take a fresh look at Afghanistan.  Look at where we are, and how far we’ve come.  And look at the opportunity we now have for Afghanistan to become a factor for peace and prosperity in Central Asia, rather than a source of instability and conflict. 

Thirty years of conflict left a legacy of weak governance and great poverty.  But surely and steadily, NATO and Afghan Security Forces are creating the security conditions for stability and development.  Afghanistan is looking to the future, not the past.  And so should we.

NATO is determined to see its current mission through, and to stand by Afghanistan even after 2014.  The Alliance looks forward to the rest of the international community, and to the countries of the region, joining with us to help deliver to the Afghan people the future they deserve. 

Thank you, and I look forward to our discussion.