December 4, 2014 – London, United Kingdom
Check Against Delivery
President Ghani, Prime Minister Cameron,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Please let me express Canada's appreciation to the governments of Afghanistan and the United Kingdom for co-hosting the London Conference on Afghanistan.
As one of Canada’s countries of focus, Afghanistan has been a long-time recipient of Canadian assistance.
Although our military mission there has ended, Canada's contributions to the country’s security have not. In fact, as we committed to at the 2012 Chicago Summit, starting in 2015, we will contribute $330 million over three years for the Afghan National Security Forces.
Our development and diplomatic pursuits will continue in support of Afghanistan's efforts to build a better future for all Afghans with Dr. Ashraf Ghani's leadership.
President Ghani is a special friend of Canada’s, and we are struck with the opportunity before his team. I note especially the recent initiatives President Ghani has undertaken as Commander in Chief. In the troubling attacks that persist in his country, his stewardship of Afghanistan's security efforts will be crucial in the months ahead.
Even more broadly, President Ghani's leadership and vision, alongside the efforts of Afghanistan's Chief Executive, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, will be instrumental in shaping a positive future for a country and a people who deserve their freedom.
Earlier this year, Canadian Minister Chris Alexander led a delegation from Canada to Kabul to bear witness, on Foreign Minister Baird's behalf, to the historic transfer of power in this remarkable country. He reported the strength of the new Afghan leadership, and of the promising direction President Ghani intends to lead his country.
Since 2001, Canada has stood alongside Afghans through two Loya Jirgas that shaped their constitution and their democratic form of government. Our soldiers have fought for the security and freedom of Afghans alongside their brave Afghan brothers and sisters. Our investments toward the education, health and prosperity of the Afghan people have helped foster an irreversible trend that is now manifest in the will of the Afghan people.
As this young country—so much of the population is under the age of 35—emerges from decades of war, there is a clear and broad national consensus on its future direction. Toward modernity and equality, and toward freedom and the rule of law.
Indeed, Canada remains deeply committed to Afghanistan.
We will continue to support the future of Afghan children and youth.
We will solidify and expand the gains made in maternal, newborn and child health, encouraged ever more by the tireless efforts of President Ghani's energetic wife.
We will assist in providing education to children and youth, and emboldening the civil and political participation, human rights and economic empowerment of women.
With this in mind, I am pleased to announce today, on behalf of the Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, that Canada is renewing its support to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission until 2018.
As we all know, Afghanistan continues to face pressing human rights issues, and the need to accelerate hard-won gains is even more important today.
Our support to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights commission will help to bolster Afghanistan's ability to address challenges posed by continued violence against women and girls; child, early and forced marriage; internally displaced people, and belligerent actors who seek to curtail basic freedoms. Our hope is that this support will ensure that men and women are afforded the same rights, and by extension the same opportunities, to live a peaceful and prosperous life.
The future development and stability of Afghanistan will be a direct result of the empowerment of its women.
President Ghani, Chief Executive Abdullah, in just two months, your government has used bold initiatives to reinstate optimism and hope among Afghans. Canada knows this hope is not misplaced.
For these initial steps to pave the path to true prosperity, we must reflect on the potential for the regional economy to grow quickly if energy, rail and highway infrastructures are built, if borders are opened, if the rule of law is secured, and if neighbours work cooperatively for the betterment of Afghanistan and the region.
In this, the Istanbul Process is key, as the Afghan President has noted. Even more so, are the measures designed to build confidence and to capture the region's great potential. This economic architecture will require the shared commitment and resolve of regional partners toward true stability and security.
We applaud the National Unity Government's focus on implementing vital reforms that will, over time, place Afghanistan on a solid footing on the path to self-reliance.
The reform agenda that is being proposed is a powerful document. Ottawa has read it carefully and compliments its authors for its breadth and substance, and the powerful vision it presents for Afghanistan’s future. From land governance, to women’s empowerment; from strengthening fiscal discipline to national infrastructure; there is an undeniable demonstration that indeed, “this time is different.”
It is in this potential that I, on behalf of Minister Paradis, am pleased to announce that Canada will support Afghanistan's national budget requirements with $135 million until 2017, through the World Bank administered Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund - the ARTF. $10M of this contribution will be re-profiled from the ARTF and disbursed in 2014-15 to reduce Afghanistan’s fiscal gap. In addition, Canada is proud to announce $10 million in new funds for on-budget support that will further contribute towards Afghanistan’s efforts to close the fiscal gap.
Our expectation is that the ARTF will provide President Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah with the essential support they require to fulfill the reform agenda.
These investments arise from the declarations that form the Tokyo Mutual Accountability Framework, jointly developed by Afghanistan and its partners. Canada highly values this framework for mutual accountability. Reciprocal development investments that reinforce the performance of the Afghan government will pave the way to a stable and prosperous Afghanistan. We look forward to working with the National Unity Government to update the framework to take into account Afghanistan's new priorities, and most especially, its robust reform agenda.
As President Ghani has said, we are guided by Afghan efforts to build a resilient economy that encourages growth and prosperity. Capital will come as corruption recedes. Canadian leaders in financial services and extractive industries can be a resource to Afghanistan in its economic development. Recent Afghan efforts to confront corruption, including issues around Kabul Bank, are most-welcome steps.
Of course, any long-term, sustainable growth hinges on our shared ability to help Afghanistan confront and rid the forces that have sought to stifle progress at every turn.
I must note, on behalf of Foreign Minister Baird and the Government of Canada, the crucial need to end violations of Afghanistan's sovereignty, to end interference—direct or through proxies—including through the support of terror groups such as the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, Al Qaida or ISIL. It is a mad proposition that the material support for these subversive elements could ever be justified as a matter of legitimate policy—and in Afghanistan, it is the Afghans who are paying the ultimate price for this folly. In the last year we have seen the tragic consequences of one nation that flouts international law and interferes in the sovereignty of another from behind a thin and stunningly obvious smokescreen of deniability, to annex territory and to foment instability. The safeguarding of Afghan sovereignty is no less important.
Without rules, chaos will ensue. Without a repudiation of the worst practices in foreign policy, instability will prevail. Absent an end to interference and violations of sovereignty, Afghanistan's—and the region's—economy will remain shackled to its self-perpetuating poverty.
India's Prime Minister noted during his presentation at the United Nations General Assembly how there are no distinctions of terror as ‘‘good terror’’ or ‘‘bad terror.’’ There is no space in the civilized world to deploy terror as an instrument of statecraft, and no cause that justifies terror as a legitimate means. State—or deep state—sponsorship of terror is a betrayal of our international order.
For the region, Afghanistan's neighbours must end their use of terror as they try to accomplish their dubious ends. This menace of terrorism, with all its enablers, must be confronted. Indeed, any country that is supporting these groups is no friend of Afghanistan, of the Afghan people, or of those here today who have assembled to rededicate our efforts toward the freedom and prosperity of the Afghan people.
Excellencies, colleagues, Canada's continued contribution is resolute, and we will remain a key partner in Afghanistan as we work to address and overcome the challenges that still exist.
President Ghani, Chief Executive Abdullah, we look forward to working closely with you in service to the people of Afghanistan.
Thank you.
