Istanbul, Tuesday 29 June 2004
Prime Minister:
Good Afternoon everyone. First of all, before I say a word or two about Afghanistan, can I just take this opportunity to thank Turkey for having hosted this summit, to say what a superb job they have done on the arrangements and organisation for the summit, which I know has been difficult because of the security pressures that they faced, and also to say that all of us here I think have been impressed once again at the changes that have happened in Turkey, and certainly I look forward to Turkey taking its rightful place in the European Union. If the progress continues and the criteria are met in the way that I anticipate and expect they will be, then I think that is a real expectation that all of us within the European Union have. So if I could just say that word of thanks to our Turkish hosts and to the President and Prime Minister.
And then to say how delighted I am to see President Karzai again and to hear from him first hand what is happening in Afghanistan, the challenges that Afghanistan faces, but also the remarkable progress. I think when I was making my intervention today I said that there were 2.5 million refugees that had returned to Afghanistan, in a sense had voted with their feet, and he interrupted me to say that the latest figures were actually 3.5 million that had returned to Afghanistan, and that is an indication as well as the numbers that are registering to vote at the elections of how people in Afghanistan want this new future of democracy. And of course there are these tremendous challenges of the terrorists and the private militias, the issues to do with drugs; on the other hand, the progress that Afghanistan is making is remarkable and from our perspective, not just in terms of Britain but also in terms of NATO, we want to do what we can to help. So the agreements here have been important to extend the security force and extend the provincial reconstruction teams, push that outside of Kabul and make sure that is in the north and west of the country too, and also the possibility, and I think real possibility, of the deployment of the NATO Response Force in order to assist the elections will be a big plus. So Hamid once again it is good to see you and congratulations for your courage and your leadership and everything that you are doing with your people to make a brighter future.
President Karzai:
Thank you very much. Well Mr Prime Minister I would like to join you in thanking the government and people of Turkey for this marvellous organisation of the conference and the hospitality they extended to all of us. On Afghanistan, Mr Prime Minister, before I go to describing what we have achieved in Afghanistan, I would like to thank you as a friend of Afghanistan, a friend of the Afghan people and a person that has really been with us from day one to today in the strongest possible manner, I thank you very much for that, and through you the people of the UK for what we have got now in our country with your assistance and help.
I don’t know how many of you ladies and gentlemen have been to Afghanistan two years ago, and if any one of you have been there recently. The country that we began two years ago, two and a half years ago, did not have a single penny in the coffers, in the banks of Afghanistan, we were a penniless country, and I am not going to say how much we have today because the Prime Minister won’t give us more money, but we have a vibrant economy today, we have a currency that trades well against all other currencies. To give an example, we were paying as daily wages for labour two and a half years ago less than $1, today that has gone to $4. Skilled labour would get about $3 three years ago, today a skilled labourer, I learned the day before yesterday from somebody working in our government that is building his home, that he could not find somebody for even $18 skilled labour. Life has improved. When we began the process for registration of voters, we did not know what sort of response we would get, but the moment the process began the response from the Afghans from all over the country, on the radio, on the BBC, on the Voice of America, on Radio Liberty and on radio as well, that the registration people are not there, send them soon. Today we have 5.2 million people registered, and I was speaking this morning with the Election Commission’s office and they told me that by 10 July they are expecting this number to reach 6 million people.
We have problems too in the country. Terrorism is still affecting us, as it did 2 years ago, we have the question of drugs, we were discussing with the Prime Minister about how to improve our joint efforts against drugs and how to destroy this menace, we have the question of militias. But Afghanistan is moving forward and the story is too long for me to describe in this short meeting of ours, I hope you will visit us to see it for yourselves too, what we were and what we are today.
Question:
Mr President, it is also the case that the security situation in Afghanistan is very difficult in many parts of the country outside Kabul. NATO’s new Secretary General himself has warned that NATO is on the edge of failing in parts of Afghanistan and indeed the opium crop is very high. What do you need in terms of military help to ensure that these elections are free and fair, and indeed your own stability, and are you getting what you need and are you getting it early enough?
President Karzai:
First of all the security beyond Kabul is really not at all what is described in the press, it is much, much better than you can imagine, much, much better. Terrorism is attacking soft targets, they can do that in any country, they bombed a train in Spain, they are bombing other places around the world. In Afghanistan they go against the women … Now is that strength, to go and plant a bomb and kill women, is that strength to stop civilians on a bus in a remote part of the country and kill them because they have registration cards? Is that strength or is that desperation and failure? They have failed in Afghanistan, they failed 6 months ago when we were making the constitution of the Loya Jirga, they tried to do the same thing but that didn’t stop people, people came and made one of the best constitutions for us. So no, the security situation in the country is much better than you can imagine. Do we face terrorism? Yes we do, in the form that I described earlier. Do we have a drugs problem? Yes we have and we are fighting it. Do we have security incidents? Yes we have. Do we need more troops from the international community? Yes we do, because Afghan people trust them, because the Afghan people want a better environment to conduct themselves towards free and fair elections. The decision yesterday by NATO to find 3,500 more troops in addition to the 6,500 that they have in parts of the country to ensure the security and … environment for elections is a welcome step and I hope that this response will be quick enough and on time before the elections so that our people can go and vote freely without fear.
Question:
Is it also the case that NATO, not necessarily Britain but other members of NATO, have talked a good game but haven’t actually delivered in terms of either money or people on the ground, and can we just have clarification of what for Britain yesterday’s agreement means in terms of the increased commitment of troops to Afghanistan.
Prime Minister:
What it means for us is that we have said in addition to the other things that we are doing, because we are working these provincial reconstruction teams up in the north which I think have had a good impact on security, but in addition what we have said is that as part of the onward NATO commitment we will deploy the ARRC.
Question:
What is that?
Prime Minister:
That is the Ace Response Force which we head up and which we will then bring to Afghanistan as part of the NATO commitment of 2006, so we will be putting not merely more into the work that we are doing in the north of the country through these provincial reconstruction teams, which are essentially groups of trained people, soldiers, who will go in and help build the Afghan capability, but we will also be deploying this force that will allow us to help stabilise the country and be part of the onward NATO commitment. And the other thing to remember is there has obviously been the Donors’ Conference as well at Berlin where $8.5 billion was committed to the country. So I think what is obvious is the challenges are real, I don’t think the President is saying anything different from that, but on the other hand this has been an important summit for NATO because we have stepped up to the mark. Now we have got to follow through in that and I think the key is, as the President was saying, to make sure that this Response Force that NATO has is deployed to help the election process, that is the most important thing for them in the short term.
Question:
You don’t feel you have been let down?
President Karzai:
Well if I announce today that we are less than satisfied, I would really be ungrateful. We were a country run, governed by terrorism two and a half years ago, we were a country close to starvation two and a half years ago, we were a country where there was massive oppression two and a half years ago where kids could not go to school. We are a country today where five million kids go to school, we are a country today with so many universities, we are a country where 3.5 million of our refugees have returned in two years time, refugees that were away from home for 30 years, we are a country rebuilding our roads, we are a country having travel transportation again, we are a country having television stations again, we are a country having private radios again, we are a country having a free media that would look your media like government media.
Prime Minister:
I think that might be a slight… I will have to talk to you about that one I think.
President Karzai:
That is the kind of country we are, so that has been achieved with the help of the international community. I am going to thank them for what we have now today in Afghanistan. We could have not done what we have done, we could have not had what we have today without the help of the international community, without the help of the United Kingdom and I want you to go and tell that to your readers and your audience. Sometimes I don’t see that message.
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