Statement by Ambassador Rakesh Sood, Head of the Indian Delegation at the Political Directors Meeting at the Joint Cooridnation and Monitoring Board Berlin- January 30, 2007

Mr. Co-Chairmen,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure to be here at this special meeting of the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board in Berlin today. I would like to thank the hosts for the gracious hospitality and the excellent arrangements made for the meeting.

Mr Co- Chairmen, the international community has been united in committing itself to the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan since the commencement of the Bonn Process. The coordinated effort by the Government of Afghanistan and the international community to bring Afghanistan from its decades of destruction to the path of peace, stability and development led to the adoption of the Afghanistan Compact in London in January last year. A year later, we meet again to review the progress and instill confidence in the people of Afghanistan and reaffirm the unwavering commitment of the international community of the challenge of reconstruction of Afghanistan.

India has demonstrated its full commitment to rebuilding its neighbour – Afghanistan. The modest assistance of Government of India, which started soon after the ouster of Taliban from Kabul, has now expanded several folds. During the recent visit of External Affairs Minister of India to Kabul on January 23-24, 2007, India announced an additional pledge of US $ 100 million, thereby taking India’s total aid to Afghanistan to US $ 750 million.

We have ensured that every project is taken up after due consultation with the Government of Afghanistan, implemented in close coordination with them and conforms to Afghan priorities. We have taken up projects in almost all the important sectors including, education, health, telecommunication, transport, civil aviation, agriculture and irrigation, industry, power generation and transmission, human resource development, media development, road building and many other areas. These include humanitarian projects of providing medical care to around 350 thousand patients annually in Afghanistan by Indian doctors; and supply of 100 grams of fortified biscuits to more than one million school children every day in various parts of Afghanistan in collaboration with WFP. From next month onwards, India will embark upon the task of implementation of the Small Development Projects in the outlying districts of Afghanistan, in which several quick gestation projects like school buildings, medical clinics, veterinary centres, bore-wells, plant nurseries, orphanages, etc will be built, by local community.

I would like to highlight especially the capacity development efforts, which is a crosscutting issue in the Afghanistan Compact. Since 2001, India has trained more than 1300 Afghans in India. In order to accelerate this effort, since 2006, we have embarked upon an ambitious programme of training 500 Afghans in short-term courses and 500 Afghan in graduate and postgraduate courses, annually in India. Additionally, India also signed an MoU on ‘Capacity Development in Public Administration’ for Afghanistan, with the Afghan Independent Administrative Reforms and Civil Service Commission and the United Nations Development Programme. Under this, India will provide 30 experts with rich civil service experience, to work with the Afghan ministries and other agencies to help build competence and capability. In addition, India has also made efforts to include a strong capacity development component in all its infrastructural projects in Afghanistan.

Mr. Co-Chairmen, India fully shares the concerns expressed by the Afghan government over the escalation of violence in recent months due to revival of Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups, the existence of cross border safe havens for these groups, and growing incidents of suicide bombing and IEDs. It has been our endeavour to strengthen the Government of Afghanistan in order that a strong political message is sent all around that the problems posed by narcotics, terrorism and insecurity in Afghanistan will not deter the international community from its agenda of economic development of Afghanistan. We as the international community have a responsibility to deal with such challenges is a joint manner so that this region attains peace and stability. India believes that the reality with respect to the prevailing security paradigm in Afghanistan needs to be reflected accurately in the JCMB reports to enable the international community, especially those countries that are involved in the security sector, to adopt effective policies and measures against cross-border terrorism, which is having a destabilizing influence in Afghanistan and the region.

Mr. Co-Chairmen, Afghanistan’s recent admission as a member of SAARC is recognition of its historical links with South Asia and would encourage free trade and participation in shared economic activities. I would like to call upon regional countries to commit itself to the pledge made by them at the 2nd Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan in New Delhi in November 2006, wherein they agreed to enhance regional cooperation on opportunities of mutual benefit. In addition, I would like to endorse Government of India's firm commitment to support the efforts of JCMB in carrying forward the Compact and implement the development of Afghanistan in a coordinated manner as projected in the document.

To conclude, I would like to reiterate India’s commitment to work with the Government and the people of Afghanistan and the international community for socio-economic upliftment of Afghanistan and peace and stability of the region.

Thank you.