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EXCERPTS: Briefing by Special Representative Holbrooke on his Recent Trip to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia
Richard Holbrooke
Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
State Department, Washington, DC, March 2, 2010
AMBASSADOR HOLBROOKE:
A. TRIP TO CENTRAL ASIA:
1. I want to talk about this trip, which was my fifth trip this year and my second to the Gulf, second to South Asia, but my first, since taking this job, to Central Asia. And this is part of an accelerating intensification of our diplomatic outreach efforts.
2. In the last six months, we've had delegations in Beijing, in Russia, in Turkey, in all – almost every country in the Gulf and, of course, in Europe, in China and now for the first time, we've reached into Central Asia. I was in four of the five "stans," in order – if I can remember them, we've moved so fast – Uzbekistan, first; then Kyrgyzstan; then Tajikistan; and then Kazakhstan. We had also planned to go to Turkmenistan, but through a logistical communications failure, we did not get the final clearance to land in Ashkabad until we were on the runway taking off for Estonia, so we were locked in. And that's a minor story, but that's the only reason we weren't in Ashkhabad.
3. In Tashkent, of course, we talked about the Northern Distribution Network and its importance to us. Most of the supplies coming through that entry point into Afghanistan – the Northern Distribution Network – come through Uzbekistan. In Kazakhstan, we talked about improving and increasing our over-flight facilities and improving rail transit, which is an issue we're interested in. And in Tajikistan, we talked about also northern distribution issues. And in addition, we talked about resources. Water is a huge problem, as you all know, in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And Tajikistan has one of the greatest water potentials in the world, and President Rahmon described that to us in some detail. And we have, on a separate basis we have got a water resources task force now set up in the Department to examine how we can additionally help the countries of the area, and particularly Pakistan with the water issue.
4. President Saakashvili and I had discussed this a year ago and started the process which has led to the deployment, and he accompanied me on this trip to the training mission. I was not there on any other subject. We did not discuss U.S-Russian relations. We did not discuss issues involving their future relationships with NATO. This was an Afghanistan-related trip.
5. But I want to express with great strength on behalf of the entire U.S. Government how much the United States Government appreciates the Georgian contribution.
B. KARZAI'S ELECTION COMMISSION DECISION:
6. The integrity of the elections in the eyes of the Afghan people and the international community is very important, and it is a legitimate concern of the international community that with all the troops that are there, with all the international assistance, that there be a process which is transparent and free and fair.
7. And so some of the concerns that have been raised are things that we think are legitimate and need to be discussed further.
8. I'm not going to get into hypotheticals, particularly when the assistance has been structured and restructured now to help the Afghan people. You want us to withhold cash for work in the agricultural sector because of this issue? That makes no sense. I'm not going to advocate things like that.
9. Our – we have a large, overriding goal here – to help Afghanistan succeed in its efforts to defeat the Taliban and its allies in al-Qaida. And we're not going to take our eye off that goal. But to get there, we want to encourage policies that give the broadest possible support to the government from the Afghan people, but – and that carries a wide range of issues, including this one.
10. The bulk of the money [for funding the Afghan elections] you're referring to is not American and it's not controlled by the United States. So let the international community deal with that.
C. PAKISTANI MILITARY'S ROLE:
11. U.S. relations with the Government of Pakistan, civilian and military side, are much better today than they were 13 months ago. We have really worked on this.
12. I don't want to draw any strategic conclusions from it. I just want to express my appreciation to the Pakistani Government and its army for what it's doing. They're doing these things in the face of enormous, overwhelming economic problems. They're doing it in the face of water and energy problems, which are getting more and more of our attention. We, in turn, are trying to increase our support for the Pakistanis. I should have mentioned Senator Kerry, who went back again. I talked to Senator Kerry at length yesterday. He is paying a special attention to Pakistan and playing a very important independent but supporting role.
13. First of all, the misunderstanding over Kerry-Lugar-Berman has abated but it certainly hasn't disappeared. And we work on that.
Secondly, on the bottlenecks, the biggest bottlenecks are not with Kerry-Lugar-Berman. That money has been appropriated and it is beginning to flow. The biggest bottleneck has been in regard to Coalition Support Funds, which is a very different matter. We, under the Coalition Support Funds, CSF, we – the Pakistanis are waiting for close to $2 billion in money that has been appropriated by Congress and has been set aside.
14. Last week, we released $349 million of that money, urgently needed. We are still working through the rest of the money. Not all the money that is asked for comes in. About 60-65 percent of it gets reimbursed. And the delays have been caused by a lot of things. The Congress and the GAO have accounting procedures which are pretty complicated. And we have offered to have auditors go to Pakistan to help with this, and the auditing team was held up in a massive delay over other visas and we pulled them out of the visa issue and they are on their way. And it's a complicated process, so – and there's a long history here. And again, I don't want to blame everything on what we inherited, but when we took office, the backlog was amazing and there was no procedure for it.
15. Talked to Ambassador Haqqani about it yesterday and again this morning, and we're working on it very much. But I do want to stress $349 million of CSF went to Pakistan last week.
16. All I can tell you is that these are positive events and they should be welcomed by anybody who opposes extremism and terrorism. And I think that in Pakistan and in Afghanistan, but particularly in Pakistan, there's been a movement, a shift in sentiment here. In Pakistan right now, my greatest concern is to help the Pakistanis with their economic and energy problems. I think they're on the right track in this other area.
D. SAUDI ARABIA:
17. We consider Saudi Arabia one of the most important countries in the largest strategic region which is affected by Afghanistan, and we will continue the dialogue intensively and we're very grateful for the Saudis for their support.
E. ATTACK ON INDIANS IN KABUL:
18. First of all, in regard to this attack, I don't accept the fact that this was an attack on an Indian facility like the embassy. They were foreigners, non-Indian foreigners hurt. It was a soft target. And let's not jump to conclusions. I understand why everyone in Pakistan and everyone in India always focuses on the other. But please, let's not draw a conclusion which – for which there's no proof.
F. US POLICY ON INDIA & PAKISTAN:
19. My next trip to the region will be with Admiral Mullen. Together, we did this just under a year ago. I think some of you in this room were on that trip. And Admiral Mullen and I try to do about one civ-mil – joint civ-mil trip a year, and that trip will include India.
20. Now, on the larger issue, let me just make a general comment about this. This is my own personal feeling about these three countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. The three countries are vastly different in culture, socioeconomic standing, political development, and – but they share a common strategic space. And in order to understand America's policy and America's policy dilemma, one has to understand that both India and Pakistan have legitimate security interests in the region.
21. And I'm not talking about that certain area between them which I'm not going to mention by name. (Laughter.) I am – because I am not going to get involved in that. And people who have advocated that are making a proposal which I believe runs counter to stability in Afghanistan. Afghanistan must be dealt with on its merits.
22. But as President Obama, Secretary Clinton, Secretary Gates, Admiral Mullen and I have said repeatedly, there are many countries that have legitimate security interests in what happens in Afghanistan. It's not an accident that Afghanistan was the center of the so-called Great Game in the 19th century. And it's not an accident that when you have a country that has been torn by war, which is relatively weak compared to very powerful neighbors, that it draws other countries in. That's what happened in Cambodia in a different way and it's happened in other parts of the world. It's part of the story of the Congo.
23. And Afghanistan is surrounded by – and when I say surrounded, I just don't mean its contiguous neighbors; I mean countries in the region. Russia still has an interest even though they don't have a common border. India has a legitimate interest even though they don't have a common border. Iran and Pakistan are obviously the two most important countries with power – common borders. But I just visited two of the others, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and I missed Turkmenistan only because of logistics, and I'll go back.
24. Now, having said all that, I need to stress that each – that Pakistan and India have a historic relationship which people must respect. It is complicated. Its origins go back to 1947 and before 1947. I'm an amateur student of that history, but I don't profess to know a lot about it, but it – but what happened then affects us today. But I need to stress that both countries have legitimate security interests. And if one country says the other has no interest, then you – then it's hard to have a dialogue. That's why President Obama has said we encourage any sort of dialogue between the two countries, and Afghanistan is not the core of the issue, but it is a part of the issue.
25. The other issues I would mention that are very critical are water – water is a huge issue here, and increasingly on our trips, people in both countries talk about water – and overall security relationships. Other issues have arisen continually. And we have good relations with both India and Pakistan. It is our view that it is in our national interest to improve relations with both countries, neither – not at the expense of the other. It is not – improved relations with one country is not at the expense of the other; on the contrary. We – by improving relations in both countries, we can move forward a general search for peace and stability in the region.
26. This policy really began in the year 2000 when President Clinton went to both countries, the first president to visit either country in 22 years since Jimmy Carter had gone in 1978. And since then, President Bush has done the same thing. And we will – this is the overriding approach we have to the issue. And that's our starting point for the strategic overview of the region.
27. Well, of course both sides raise issues like that [terrorism]], but it will not serve any purpose for me to make public confidential discussions. We – our relations with both countries are good. We are improving relations with both countries. Both in New Delhi and in Islamabad, people come up to us and say, oh, you're pro-the other country, you're favoring one country over another. That's not true. We are focused on the issues themselves and on generally good relations, and we seek to do everything we can to help Pakistan economically, which is, I think – which is my highest priority. And we work closely with India on a whole range of issues which you're all familiar with and which my colleague, Bob Blake, oversees for Secretary Clinton.
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