Friday, June 15, 2012

Regional Cooperation on Afghanistan

Iran along with 14 other countries in the region joined forces on Thursday to work with Afghanistan in fighting terrorism and drug trafficking and pursue economic development of the war-torn country.

“Afghanistan recognizes out of a grim experience of the past that it is only in stability and harmony and peace in this region that Afghanistan can prosper and be stable,” President Hamid Karzai said in his opening remarks to the conference in Kabul sponsored by the Afghan government [AP, 15 June].

“Whatever happens in Afghanistan affects us in one way or another,” said Ahmet Davutoglu, foreign minister of Turkey and co-chairman of the event. ‘In order to build confidence, one needs to commit to working together, to leave past negative memories behind and positively reconstruct future expectations.”

The 15 nations that participated in the conference were: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan. 

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