Pulling out, pushing on? Or just going home?”
Historical archive
Published under: Stoltenberg's 2nd Government
Publisher: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Panel debate, CMI in Bergen, 21 October 2010
Speech/statement | Date: 21/10/2010
Introduction by Jonas Gahr Støre, Minister of Foreign Affairs to a debate on Afghanistan and Pakistan at CMI in Bergen 21 October 2010.
Introduction by Jonas Gahr Støre, Minister of Foreign Affairs to a debate on Afghanistan and Pakistan at CMI in Bergen 21 October 2010.
Støre based his address on some of the following key points:
- Thank you for the invitation. Important forum and discussions taking place here.
- Change and dynamism: Where are we in 10 months’ time?
- The title “Pulling out, pushing on? Or just going home?” The challenge: Getting these things right. Enabling Afghanistan to run Afghanistan. When to withdraw.
- Challenging – because of a situation that is difficult to read, to interpret. What is the true situation? Risk of misreading events.
- I) Complexity: Transition. Afghan priorities (budget, money) and ownership.
- Transparency. Human rights.
- Mutual expectations.
- Afghan leadership: with ISAF present/when ISAF has withdrawn.
- Political solution. What is intended. What is needed.
- “An Afghanistan good enough is good enough”. What is good enough?
- II) Is a political solution sustainable? Fighting insurgency, corruption and other problems: Will never be better than the quality of the government we try to support.
- Outreach. Does governance work?
- Army – and government.
- Fighting other people’s war.
- Human rights situation.
- Returning to: “An Afghanistan good enough”. Living with warlords. Political realities. The ethnic groups, the ethnic mix.
- Reconciliation. On the verge, different traditions, difficult tests.
- III) Long term/short term.
- Military capacity, capacity building.
- The discussion military/civil. Now paying the price for blurred lines. Well documented that so-called quick impact projects carried out by military forces rarely bring about stability or achieve what they set out to.
- Afghan police.
- IV) The region.