Ministry Statements & Speeches:
New Zealand welcomes the adoption of today’s resolution, which provides a clear reaffirmation of the international community’s ongoing commitment to supporting peace and stability in Afghanistan.
After more than 15 years of international assistance, it is wonderful that many States recommitted themselves to continued support for Afghanistan until 2020 at the Warsaw and Brussels conferences earlier this year. They did so from a shared recognition that an unstable Afghanistan means instability for the region and for the wider international community; and that Afghanistan’s stability will continue to require the support of regional and international partners for the foreseeable future.
However, despite the progress over the past year, Afghanistan continues to struggle to make meaningful strides in tackling the key drivers of instability.
The National Unity Government continues to be hampered by uncertainty and infighting. The recent dismissal of seven Ministers by the Afghan Parliament for what appears to be minor administrative failings is cause for concern. We hope these actions do not further compromise the stability of the National Unity Government and its ability to tackle the many challenges the country faces.
Following some cause for optimism at the end of last year, the peace and reconciliation process with the Taliban appears to have stalled. The Taliban continue to hold the Government of Afghanistan at arms-length while it wages an increasingly bloody war on the Afghan Government and people and on the international presence in the country. New Zealand expresses its condolences for recent attacks against German, American and Afghan security officials which killed and injured dozens. These attacks and the Taliban war more generally continue to be funded by the profits from narcotics trafficking and illicit mining. There is also mounting concerns about an impending humanitarian crisis in the East of the country, with the expected return of one and a half million refugees from Pakistan in the coming months.
The investment of the international community in Afghanistan will only be effective if we make strategic use of all of the tools at our disposal to support peace, stability and security. Failure to do so would be a mistake, and would be to the detriment of not only Afghanistan, but also the region and international community more broadly.
Beyond our bilateral commitments, New Zealand has done its part as Chair of the Security Council’s Taliban and ISIL and Al-Qaida sanctions committees to explore what more can be done to support these goals. I have just returned earlier this week from a visit to Afghanistan to discuss how these sanctions regimes could be utilised more effectively. I welcome the commitment expressed by many Afghan interlocutors, including President Ghani, to make greater use of the Taliban sanctions regime as a tool to support the peace and reconciliation process. I hope these discussions will lead to concrete steps, including the further listing of the Taliban’s leadership and supporters who benefit from ongoing criminality through narcotics trafficking and illicit mining. I also hope we will see greater use of the exemptions procedures in the sanctions regime for listed persons genuinely engaged in the peace process.
New Zealand welcomes the peace agreement reached between the Afghan Government and Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. We hope this agreement can serve as an example for broader peace agreements in future. It will be appropriate for the ISIL and AQ Committee to give swift consideration to the delisting of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar once a request is received from the Afghan Government.
However, for all of these efforts to succeed, Afghanistan’s commitment must be matched by others in the region, particularly Afghanistan's immediate neighbours. We welcome the focus on enhancing regional cooperation in the resolution adopted today. The very nature of the challenges Afghanistan faces demand this. The cross-border financial flows that fund the insurgency and terrorism in Afghanistan and the movement of foreign terrorist fighters cannot be addressed by Afghanistan alone. It requires a collective effort, not least because it will bring a collective benefit. It should be clear to all that a destabilised Afghanistan is in the interests of no-one.