Wednesday, July 8, 2020
Kabul (BNA) President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani delivered keynote address at “Strengthening Consensus for Peace” online conference, initiated by the Afghan government on Monday at the Presidential Palace. Representatives from 20 regional countries, United States, Organization for Islamic Cooperation and the United Nations attended the conference and exchanged views on the issues pertaining to peace, intra-Afghan negotiations and particularly extending efforts to strengthen consensus for Afghan peace at regional and international level.
President Ghani expressed his deepest sympathies over the loss of lives from corona virus and extended gratitude to the international community’s covid-19 related support with Afghanistan.
He extended gratitude to the regional countries for keeping transit open and permitting supply chains that enabled movement of commercial commodities. “Thanks to this unprecedented regional cooperation, Afghanistan has not faced any shortage of basic commodities and that is a small indication of what regional cooperation and international coordination can do,” said the president. President Ghani termed the regional countries and Afghanistan’s global partners as stakeholders in stability, peace and prosperity of Afghanistan and stressed that further cooperation and binding relationships between Afghanistan and the regional countries can lift hundreds of millions of people from poverty. The president said “We are facing the threat of terrorism, regional and transnational networks and criminal organizations and extremist movements.” President Ghani attached importance to reviving the role of Afghanistan as the regional roundabout and platform for regional stability and prosperity that can result in connectivity in the entire region.
The president lauded the United States for its foundational partnership with Afghanistan and for being a steadfast partner and praised its efforts to strengthen regional and international consensus for peace. President Ghani, “Our vision of Afghanistan is to be a center of accord of Asia serving as an economic and cultural roundabout and a platform for regional and global cooperation.”
“The end state that we seek is a sovereign, democratic and united Afghanistan at peace within and with the region and the world, and able to preserve and expand the gains of the past nineteen years for its citizens, particularly the women and youth of Afghanistan,” added the president. President Ghani said the government has the capacity and political will to end the violence to concluding a political agreement.
The president stressed that there is an emerging regional and global movement towards ending the war, where the support of the neighbors and regional countries for strengthening consensus will enable Afghanistan to achieve its objectives for peace.
President Ashraf Ghani said that the winners of peace will be the people of Afghanistan and the region, underscoring that peace and stability in Afghanistan will lead to a peaceful and stable region and world. He added that a regional support for a democratic Afghanistan will further
strengthen regional cooperation and will provide the opportunity for the Afghans to utilize their natural resources not only for economic growth in Afghanistan but also the region.
President Ghani said, “When peace breaks out, neighbors could have as much as two percent additional rate of growth.” “The regional and international consensus for peace will enable us to design a process to conclude a framework agreement followed by a comprehensive implementation plan and programs of action,” added the president. The president alarmed that “Should the Taliban opt for an approach of fighting and talking”, the peace process would face serious challenges.
The president stressed, “The extent of violence in the first two months of 2020 except for the Eid cease-fire is greater than the first six months of 2019.” He added that the UN recent reports suggest that Taliban haven’t delivered on their commitments but in turn expanded their relations with terrorist networks and with transnational criminal organizations in terms of narcotics. “We made an unconditional peace offer to the Taliban for start of negotiations,” said the president while underlining that the government has turned peace from an abstraction to a national discourse during the past five years. President Ghani added that the government has taken huge steps for peace including offering cease-fire, formation of an inclusive negotiating delegation, building national consensus for peace, and establishment of the High Council for National Reconciliation.
The president said the government took bold decisions on prisoner exchange process so that Taliban would reciprocate by releasing our forces in their captivity and enter into direct negotiations with the government. He added that we expected the Taliban to embrace a humanitarian cease-fire to allow us fight the spread of coronavirus more effectively, while unfortunately they escalated violence against the people.
President Ghani added that such acts of violence would endanger the national consensus for peace while the government is fully committed to peace.
Yarzada
