DUSHANBE, March 28, 2009, Asia-Plus — The Special Conference on Afghanistan that was held in Moscow on March 27 under the aegis of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) ended with adoption of a plan of actions and a joint declaration.
The conference participants included SCO ministers and representatives of G8 members, Afghanistan, Iran, India, Pakistan, Turkey, the UN, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the OSCE, the EU and NATO. They gathered in Moscow to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and in the Middle East and work out a strategy of fight against terrorism and drug trafficking, according to the MFA information department.
Speaking at the conference, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that terrorism, illicit drug trafficking and organized crime were seriously impeding progress in Afghanistan and called for greater international cooperation to help the country tackle these challenges.
“They are obstacles to development,” Mr. Ban said in an address to the Special Conference on Afghanistan, convened in Moscow under the aegis of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
“They bring violence into people’s daily lives. They undermine justice and human rights. They are a grave threat to public health, to governance and a democratic future,” he said. “These interconnected ills are sapping public confidence in the institutions that so many people have worked so hard to reinforce,” the Secretary-General told the meeting. Mr. Ban stressed that Afghanistan cannot face these challenges alone, and that all countries have an interest in countering them with “sustained and robust” action.
“The problems harm not only the Afghan people,” he noted. “They pose a major danger to the region and the world at large. And all of us must be involved in helping to solve them.” In the area of illicit drug trafficking for example, he emphasized the shared responsibility in reducing demand abroad, reducing supply in Afghanistan, and tightening security along trafficking routes. “Cooperation must be our watchword as we respond,” he said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke about threats existing in Afghanistan, approach to address them and Russia’s contribution to reconstruction of Afghanistan’s economy
He, particular, noted that over the period of cooperation between the two countries, Russia had built more than 140 industrial, energy, educational and health facilities in Afghanistan. In August 2007, Russia wrote off Afghanistan’s debt of more than 10 billion US dollars. The Russian minister also said that the SCO and CSTO proposed forming belts of drug, terrorist and financial security in Afghanistan.
Speaking at the conference, Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarii dwelled on reconstruction of Afghanistan’s economy and international community’s support for that process.
According to him, rehabilitation of Afghanistan’s economy will pave the way for reduction of drug trafficking. Zarii noted that development and implementation of the program for planting alternative agricultural crops was an important factor to contribute to eradication of opium cultivation in Afghanistan.
