ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday said Afghanistan must not be seen through a regional prism, but as a “shared and collective responsibility”.
“Instability in Afghanistan will have negative consequences for the entire world,” he said while addressing a seminar organised by the Centre for Afghanistan, Middle East & Africa (CAMEA) of the Institute of Strategic Studies. The day-long seminar focused on the situation in Afghanistan and the humanitarian crisis there.
FM Qureshi said the emergence of new conflicts did not mean that the world can afford to forget old ones, adding that the wounds of 40 years of war and bloodshed in Afghanistan would take a long time to heal. “Failure is not an option. If the world community fails Afghanistan yet again, it will result in a fresh influx of refugees, enhanced space for terrorism and a rise in drug trafficking,” he said.
He hoped that with the help of regional countries and international partners, the Afghan nation could once again rise to become an important country in terms of regional peace and stability, economic trade, and regional connectivity.
The foreign minister said the interim Afghan government remained embattled with humanitarian and economic crises, as well as a liquidity crunch, exacerbated by the lack of a functional banking system. He said Afghanistan currently stood at a critical crossroads as for the first time in over 40 years, there was a single unified dispensation over its entire territory.
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He said there was a hope that Afghanistan had the potential to move towards a viable and sustainable future. “Therefore, the immediate task that the international community, in general, and regional countries, in particular, need to focus on, is the stabilization of the country,” he said.
Qureshi said Pakistan had always advocated consistent engagement with Afghanistan and stressed the importance of delinking humanitarian assistance from political considerations.
“Pakistan believes that continued engagement between the interim Afghan government and the international community would help ensure a sustainable and prosperous future for Afghanistan,” he said.
He said if the international community repeated its mistakes of the past and abandons Afghanistan, the fallout would not only affect our region but will be felt globally. “Besides the immediate need to avert a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, we also have to focus on long-term infrastructure and connectivity projects in Afghanistan,” he said.
He said in the long run, Afghanistan had the potential to develop as the trade and energy corridor for the region. “We are working with Afghanistan in following up on key infrastructure and connectivity projects, a facilitative regime to assist the easy movement of people and goods across the border, and to augment the capacity of Afghan institutions,” he said.
He said Pakistan had a major stake in the peace and stability of Afghanistan which was critical for the prosperity of South Asia and the wider world. He recalled that Pakistan hosted the Troika Plus meeting and the 17th Extraordinary Session of the OIC-CFM on the situation in Afghanistan.
He mentioned that Pakistan had pledged in-kind humanitarian assistance of Rs5 billion (around $ 30 million) to Afghanistan, adding that Pakistan was acting as a channel to facilitate the flow of international humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. He said Pakistan had even enabled India to supply 50,000 MT wheat to Afghanistan by allowing it transit facility.
