Press Conference with the President of Afghanistan
25 October 2007
In a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Mr Brown said that the UK's efforts in Afghanistan were a "top foreign policy priority" and that he was determined that the country "should never be a failed state again".
Read the transcript
Prime Minister:
Good Morning. Can I say what a pleasure it is to welcome President Karzai to No 10 Downing Street. Although we have met before and had the most enjoyable conversations previously, we have had a chance over breakfast to discuss all the major issues that affect our two countries, and of course to discuss the future of Afghanistan. And as everybody knows, Afghanistan is one of our top foreign policy priorities and I welcome the conversations that I will continue to have with President Karzai over many months ahead about how we can both assist each other.
I wanted to tell President Karzai that through his efforts and the efforts of the Afghan people we have come a long way since 2001. Growth in the Afghan economy has been 7% a year. Nearly 400,000 Afghans have benefited from micro financed loans as businesses are developing in the country. The number of health clinics have risen by 60%. 70 new hospitals have been built. Over 12,000 primary and secondary schools have been reconstructed. More than 5 million children, many of them girls, are now at school. And we are helping Afghanistan take control of its own security. There are 40,000 trained and equipped soldiers and work is being done to improve the capabilities and accountability of the Afghan police.
As you know, there are more than 37,000 troops in Afghanistan from more than 37 different countries and we continue to make our contribution. And I want to praise the bravery and courage of our forces in Afghanistan. I firmly believe that burden sharing has got to become very much a part of our strategy for Afghanistan in the future. We have put the Taliban on the defensive by the combined efforts of everyone. At the same time our strategy for the future is development, defence and diplomacy, all three working together. So President Karzai and I have been able to talk about the expansion of the Afghan economy, what we can do to help industrial development, particularly the development of electricity and irrigation in the agricultural areas and how we can move forward, greater coordination of the development effort in Afghanistan so that all Afghan citizens are sure that they have a stake in the future.
We are committed to the long term success of Afghanistan and I am able to reassure President Karzai that we will work with him on his development programme and his programme for reconciliation. We are all determined that Afghanistan should never become a failed state again and to support the democracy that has been created in that country.
So President Karzai, I am going to ask you to say a few words and then ask the gentlemen and women from the press to ask questions.
President Karzai:
Thank you very much. Thank you Mr Prime Minister, thank you very much for having me today for breakfast and for the very in-depth and well informed conversation from your side. Thank you for the support that the British people have given to Afghanistan in the past 6 years. Indeed the achievements that you described in your remarks would not have been possible for us without the support of the international community, in particular Britain.
I would add to the list that you just mentioned now Afghanistan's ability to save in a sense, last year 85,000 children per year that were lost before that, this is a tremendous success for Afghanistan and we hope to add to it. Also that Afghanistan has been able to build thousands of kilometres of roads with the help of the international community; the raising of the Afghan National Army; the work on the police; and very, very important that Afghanistan is now able, especially with the help of the United Kingdom, of launching a rural development programme that has now reached more than half of Afghanistan's 38,000 villages. That means electricity, that means irrigation, that means production in various areas of agriculture, foods and all that.
The country has definitely moved forward with schools and hospitals and a better economy. Of course we continue to have problems, problems with regard to narcotics in Afghanistan, problems with regard to drug cultivation in Afghanistan and also the continuation of our war together against terrorism. I am confident, as are the majority of the Afghan people, that we are going to see one day an end to terrorism in the world and in that part of the region in Afghanistan with the right mechanisms adopted, development, diplomacy and the right military approach we are going to have success. The story of Afghanistan is one of many years of tragedy and sorrow and pain and destruction in the story of Afghanistan, in the past 6 years Mr Prime Minister, with the help of the international community is one of hope and looking forward to the future and that is our aim as well.
Thank you very much for receiving me and very nice to meet you.
Question:
Prime Minister in an interview with Sky the Chief of Defence Staff, Sir Jock Stirrup said that bringing Afghanistan into the 21st century is an enormous project that would engage the international community for decades to come. Firstly do you agree with that assessment of the situation; and secondly, do you think the British public will permit a long term military and financial commitment to Afghanistan? And also a question to President Karzai. It is clear that there is a degree of wavering on the part of some countries who contribute to the international forces in Afghanistan, the Dutch for example could withdraw 1,500 troops before the end of the year. What effect would that have on Afghanistan itself and what would you say to countries who are currently reviewing their military commitment to the country?
Prime Minister:
Afghanistan is the frontline against the Taliban. We cannot allow the Taliban to be back in control of such an important country. And the work that has been done in the last 6 years to build a democracy in Afghanistan is an important bulwark against terrorism everywhere in the world. We know that the long term solutions are not simply dependent on security, they are diplomacy, development, reconciliation. And we are determined to work with the Afghanistan government and the Afghanistan people to make sure that people have a stake in the future of Afghanistan, to make sure that the political system can function as well as possible with the reconciliation of all the groups in Afghanistan. And as far as the military campaign is concerned we want to see the burden sharing amongst the different countries that have an interest in stopping the Taliban. And I believe that over the next few months we can move to a better situation where the long term future is best guaranteed by a better system of burden sharing for the future. We know from the NATO Commander that there are other countries prepared to do more, we know also that there are means by which burden sharing can happen, but the military effort must be complemented by the diplomatic effort and by the development work that has been done. And one of the things that I look forward to in the next few months is the greater coordination of the development effort in the interests of the schools, the hospitals, the economic development, the agricultural productivity that can be achieved by better coordination of the programme.
President Karzai:
Burden sharing, as Prime Minister Brown rightly says, is necessary if we in the international community are to succeed against terrorism and violence. The international community's arrival in Afghanistan took place after the September 11 incident. That tragedy woke up the rest of the world to the problems of Afghanistan. Two, the occupation of Afghanistan by the al Queda and other terrorist networks. Now we began a journey together, a journey that saw the defeat of terrorism and the liberation of Afghanistan from terrorism. In 2001 al Queda was ruling in Afghanistan, not the Afghan people; in 2007 Afghanistan is ruling itself with a parliament, with women in it, with education available to more than 6 million children right now with universities, with the economy growing as we described. Period. Therefore the success of the international intervention in Afghanistan against terrorism and on behalf of the Afghan people to liberate it has got us magnificent results. But have we completed the journey yet? No. Therefore for us to complete successfully the journey that we have undertaken we need to remain committed. While that commitment by the international community is necessary and important we must also concentrate on reducing the burden from the international community and adding more of that to the shoulders of Afghanistan by training the Afghan army, which has been trained, which is quite a lot on its feet now, by improving the Afghan police and by adding to the capacity of Afghan institutions. Therefore, in short words, is it time to leave Afghanistan? No. Is it time to add more responsibility to the Afghan people? Yes.
Question:
I have a question to both of you. Mr President these days we are hearing a lot about the peace talks with the insurgency or with the Taliban and we are hearing at the same time about the differences within the government about the peace talks with the Taliban and within the government and the international community. Can we expect a kind of combined and same approach to this issue?
President Karzai:
With regard to the need for a political activity in Afghanistan alongside our military campaign for bringing Afghanistan stability and peace and the eventual defeat of terrorism there is agreement on all fronts within Afghanistan and with our partners in the international community. With regard to the detailed definition of that there is explaining to be done. First of all, how do we describe the Taliban? Are they a monolithic body with one leader, with one hierarchical system? No. When we say reconciliation we mean with those elements of the Afghan society who, because of fear or intimidation or all other factors, are forced to flea from Afghanistan and return with refugees. In other words those who are not part of al Qaeda, not part of terrorist networks, who accept the Afghan constitution, who accept to live in peace and who have no hatred against either Afghanistan or the rest of the world, who are not violent and who do not continue a political campaign against Afghanistan of violence, those are the ones that we are talking about. We are not speaking of reconciliation in any manner with terrorist networks, the terrorist networks must be fought and dealt with.
Question:
I was wondering about the poppy eradication on this issue in that the Taliban are funded by the narcotics trade, the Americans would very much like to spray the crops, Mr President, but you don't want that to happen. What would the ramifications of crop spraying do and if that doesn't work how are you going to manage to stop the trade? At present only 10% is being eradicated by cutting it away on the ground.
President Karzai:
We are against spraying of chemicals on Afghan fields because the Afghan relevant authorities have come up with a detailed study of the impact and the effects of that sort of spraying on Afghan fields. Afghanistan's water sources are the surface sources of water. Afghanistan drinks from those sources of water, Afghanistan irrigates from those sources of water, and all other elements that I cannot describe in detail here now. So the question of spraying is something that we have not agreed with and that we don't think is going to eradicate poppies in Afghanistan. What we need in Afghanistan for the definite eradication of poppies is a strategy that we all agree upon, which we are getting at. Two, a proper implementation plan that will be rigorous in the eradication of poppies, the interdiction of the smugglers and traffickers, arrest of drug dealers, with a proper implementation of the development of alternative livelihoods - irrigation, agricultural products and marketing. The third element, a reasonably well thought time frame for this to happen from now until we reach the results that we want. It is achievable, it is doable, we have already done it in 13 provinces of Afghanistan from two years ago, and last year 6 provinces, now we have reached 13 provinces of Afghanistan with an effective poppy eradication programme. So stability and economic development and patience will get us where we want to be.
Prime Minister:
President Karzai and I talked about this in some detail in our conversations. It is true to say that the number of poppy-free provinces has risen from 6 to 13 in the last few years, it is also true to say that more success has been achieved in the north and in the central areas. The work that we are doing in the south, we are making the anti-narcotics work a key element of our counter insurgency strategy. But I want to emphasise what President Karzai said, we must also find alternative means of economic activity in the country and that is why so much emphasis has been placed in our discussions on how economic development can move forward, how irrigation in the agricultural areas can be improved, how electricity can get to many of the areas, how we can stimulate other crops, including cotton, for the future, and how some of the fruits that can be produced in Afghanistan can be sold to the rest of the world with the proper stimulation of the farming industry. So these are all part of a strategy to deal with narcotics but it is also part of a strategy which says that in addition to defence and security and the improvement of the governance of the country with Afghans taking more responsibility for their own affairs, we must give people a proper stake, a legitimate stake in the future of Afghanistan through economic development in the future and that is where a lot of our attention, and particularly the work of DFID, our department, is now turning.
Question:
A question to Mr President. There are more than 2 million refugees living in Pakistan at the moment and there are reports that they could be involved in some terrorist activities inside Pakistan and inside Afghanistan. Do you have any policy for their detriment or for their return? And a question to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister the British people expect a very high standard from politicians in terms of integrity and morality. The Pakistani people are asking that if they expect the same standard from their politicians, why Britain is supporting Benazir Bhutto so openly who created the Taliban and allegedly was involved in more than $2 billion corruption?
President Karzai:
We have refugees in Pakistan and we have had refugees in Pakistan for the past 20 years, for which we are extremely grateful to the people of Pakistan for looking after them in a spirit of great hospitality and brotherhood and sisterhood. A lot of those refugees have returned to Afghanistan. The Afghan refugees live a very peaceful life in Pakistan, as you know, in harmony with the Pakistani people and that is how we view things. The question of violence is definitely not related to refugees, the question of violence in Pakistan is related to the sanctuaries that terrorists have there, that al Queda have there, the possibilities that they have, to the backing that they have there that also affects Afghanistan. There may be some who are associated with that activity from among Afghans as well, this is a problem that is a regional one and that by extension is an international one and it would require the focused attention of all of us for the right causes of peace in the region and in the rest of the world.
Prime Minister:
The future of Pakistan is a matter for the Pakistani people themselves. I think on the issue about terrorism in Afghanistan and on the borders of Afghanistan, we want to work with all leaders to tackle the work of al Qaeda to deal with the terrorist threat and to make sure that this part of the world, this great part of the world is free of terrorist influence.
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