Afghan endgame: Islamabad missed, but no surprises at Bonn

Pakistan and Iran acknowledged for bearing the burden of Afghan refugees.

BONN:

With key players missing, an international conference on Afghanistan’s future in the German city of Bonn wasn’t expected to produce much. And the event lived up to its billing.

All that day-long brainstorming yielded was a commitment from the Western world to not abandon Afghanistan after Nato combat troops leave the country in 2014. But the sustained global support will be conditional to clear progress on “good governance” on the part of Kabul.

Participants, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, vowed to stand by Afghanistan as it struggles to establish security.

“This renewed partnership between Afghanistan and the international community entails firm mutual commitments in the areas of governance, security, the peace process, economic and social development, and regional cooperation,” said a statement issued at the end of the conference.

Afghanistan’s most influential neighbours, Pakistan and Iran, were given a nod of acknowledgement for bearing the burden of Afghan refugees.

“We acknowledge the burden of Afghanistan’s neighbours, in particular Pakistan and Iran, in providing temporary refuge to millions of Afghans in difficult times and are committed to further work towards their voluntary, safe and orderly return,” the statement said.

The global commitment came in response to a passionate call from President Hamid Karzai that his government needed long-term international backing. “We will need your steadfast support for at least another decade” after the troops pull out, he said.

Impact in absentia

Pakistan, which is seen as pivotal to an end to the bloody strife in Afghanistan, made its presence felt by boycotting the conference in protest against the November 26 Nato air raid that killed over two dozen of its troops.

Most participants missed Pakistan, with Germany calling it a ‘setback’ and the US ‘regretting’ Islamabad’s decision.

“We regret the choice that they made because today’s conference was an important milestone towards the kind of security and stability that is important for Pakistan as well as for Afghanistan,” said Secretary Clinton.

“The entire region has a stake in Afghanistan’s future and much to lose if the country again becomes a source of terrorism – and that is why we would of course have benefited from Pakistan’s contribution to this conference,” she said.

Nonetheless, President Karzai said he was still prepared to work with Pakistan despite its boycott of the Bonn conference. He told reporters that Pakistan had missed a good opportunity to discuss its own issues and the future of Afghanistan. “But it will not stop us from cooperating,” he said.

Pakistan defended the boycott decision but offered its help for stabilising Afghanistan.

“Pakistan wants to see a peaceful Afghanistan but after the November 26 incident it was impossible for us to participate in the conference,” newly appointed Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit said.

“We had made a joint commission with Afghanistan to develop peace in the region and it was Pakistan’s utmost wish to see a result-oriented reconciliation process in Afghanistan,” Basit added.

But Secretary Clinton said “nobody in this hall is more concerned than the United States is about getting an accurate picture of what occurred in the recent border incident”.

Aid to continue

Secretary Clinton said that the US would resume paying into a World Bank-administered Reconstruction Trust Fund for Afghanistan, a decision that US officials said would allow for the disbursement of roughly $650 million to $700 million in suspended US aid.

However, a top IMF official said that Afghanistan will need to prove to donor nations that it can effectively manage the vast sums of assistance.

Taliban rejects conference

The Taliban, a key player in Afghanistan, rejected the Bonn conference much before it had started which, it claimed, was aimed to “further ensnaring Afghanistan into the flames of occupation”.

National reconciliation, along with the transition to Afghan sovereignty and international engagement after 2014, had originally topped the conference’s agenda. Karzai called upon Pakistan to help bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.

Iran opposes foreign troops after 2014

Last month, a grand assembly of tribal elders endorsed a strategic partnership agreement with the US. According to the deal, the US is likely to maintain permanent military bases in Afghanistan.

At Monday’s conference, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi underlined his country’s objections to foreign troops remaining in Afghanistan beyond 2014. “Certain Western countries are attempting to enlarge their influence in Afghanistan after 2014 with their military presence, which contradicts their efforts to support peace and security,” he said.

‘Land of opportunity’

Foreign governments, however, were determined to try to dispel at least some of the pessimism seeping into the Afghan project.

Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna, whose country became the first to sign a strategic partnership agreement with Afghanistan, pledged India would keep up its heavy investment in a country whose mineral wealth and trade routes made it “a land of opportunity”.

(Read: Bonn minus Pakistan)

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2011.