David Miliband at the Afghanistan Conference
12 Jun 2008
Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, delivered a statement in support of Afghanistan at the International Conference on Afghanistan in Paris on Thursday 12 June. He also gave an interview to the BBC on the region.Intervention by Foreign Secretary David Miliband at the International Conference in Support of Afghanistan in Paris 12 June 2008
'I have been thinking throughout the day about the phrase used by President Karzai this morning - the phrase that we are entering a period of consolidation. And I want to use my time today to reflect on how we as the international community working with the Afghan Government can use a period of consolidation. I think three things are important in making a period of consolidation a period of success.
The first is to identify those things that are working, and give them more support. The developments in the Afghan National Army now around 63)500 are a significant step forward. The rapid economic growth is noteworthy; the social progress in for example health care where 82% of Afghan citizens have basic health care compared to 9% five years ago allows us to build 011 success; the democratically elected President and Parliament we need to build on and there is another success which is Kai Aide's start as the UN Special Representative he needs our full support.
The British Government will provide that support diplomatically, militarily and economically. At the London Conference (in 2006) we announced support of some 500million pounds - we will now add to that 613m pounds in the period up to 2012/13. And we will direct that Budget through the Afghan Government for maximum effect.
But if we are going to he honest a period of consolidation has to address what's wrong as well as building on what's right. Whale; wrong is that Kai Aide has his work cut out to make the international community genuinely co-ordinated and to be honest to get the UN to coordinate as well. We have to support him in those tough decisions. Certainly there is a long way to go in building the Afghan Government's governance capacity - remember the International Transparency index - in short hand a measure of corruption - Afghanistan has slipped from 11th to 172 in the league table. Thirdly there are growing links between the insurgency and the drugs industry - reflected in the massive haul of 235 tons of some cannabis resin worth some 200m pounds - show we have to tackle those sources of the problem.
And the final point which is very important to us in the UK - we have over 800,000 citizens of Pakistani origin - and the truth is that there will not be progress in Afghanistan unless there is stability in Pakistan - and there will not be stability in Pakistan unless there is stability in Afghanistan. These two countries are tied together - it seems to me we have to encourage the efforts of both Governments to pursue a multi-pronged strategy - economic, political and security that they are both committed to. That's what mutual responsibility means between us and Afghanistan and between Afghanistan and Pakistan, thank you.'
Comments from Foreign Secretary to BBC and Reuters on arrival at Paris Conference on Afghanistan
David Miliband: Obviously this is a very important staging post in the reconstruction of Afghanistan - I think that out of the Bucharest Summit there was a really strong commitment to an economic, social and military strategy going together. The UK is determined to make a full contribution to this both politically and also economically and obviously tragically as we have learnt this week in the security realm as well. 1 will be announcing an update on our commitments from the London Conference in 2006 and setting out how up to the period 2012/13 the UK will be committing 600m pounds towards the Afghanistan reconstruction effort alongside the very important security and political efforts that we are making as well. The theme of this conference and my contribution to it will be mutual responsibility - the international community has to step up and so does the Afghan Government if we are to ensure that the Afghan people have a decent future and therefore the world can benefit from a more stable and prosperous Afghanistan.
Reporter: Is this in addition to the money pledged in London?
David Miliband: Yes, the London money runs out in 2008/9 and this takes us through to 20012/13.
Reporter: On Afghanistan, we know that the Afghan Government has been unable to stamp out corruption - are you confident that that any extra money will be put to good use?
David Miliband: I am very confident about British money - the record of the British Govt inn funding projects through the Afghan Govt is held up by many people - including Kai Aide the UN representative as something of a model in the way development aid should be done. There are many people in Afghanistan benefiting from that - the British taxpayer can know that alongside the supreme military effort that is being made there is also a committed and effective development effort alongside it.
