A couple days ago, my US State Department daily feeder cooked me up this press conference by US Afghan/Pakistan Envoy Richard Holbrooke. The Q & A, though centered on Holbrooke’s most recent trip to Pakistan and the Gulf States, held several interesting items regarding Afghanistan and the nascent Obama administration strategy for the region.
Right away, Holbrooke emphasized the displaced person ‘crisis’ in Pakistan due to the governments military battles with the Taliban in Swat and elsewhere. He highlighted the already $310-330 million in aid the US had given (a large percentage of the UN’s requested $560 million) and acknowledged that the US ‘cannot bear this burden at this level’ for much longer, calling for other states, especially from the Gulf, to contribute. It can be assumed that his trip to the Gulf states (Oman, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar) afterward included a plea for more aid.
After reiterating that Pakistan was vital to US national security, he voiced his approval for the Pakistani military’s efforts in the Swat and beyond, but was short in his discussion about whether he thought they were ‘winning’ or could ‘hold’ the recovered areas and cities formerly in Taliban control. After pretty much sidestepping a ‘can Pak military hold Swat’ question, Holbrooke went into Afghan-Pakistan relations and connections. Holbrooke first took an opportunity to criticize the Bush administration before discussing how the US had attempted to get Afghan and Pakistan government officials together. Here is Holbrooke:
And one of the things we discovered was that some of these ministers have never met before. The two interior ministers didn’t know each other. The two agriculture ministers didn’t know each other. The two finance ministers didn’t know each other.
These two states have integral history’s, ethnicities, policies, and problems, and though even Holbrooke admits that ‘Af-Pak’ is a flawed term that Afghanis and Pakistanis dislike, it is shame that their governments have had so little contact. Holbrooke argues that with a couple trilateral summits already concluded, that relations and connections are improving. The Us envoy stated that so far these trilateral summits had led to 19 Action Items dealing with issues such as agricultural and detainee policy, had been presented to President Obama. It will be interesting to see how indepth and workable these AI’s turn out to be (or if we even hear of them again).
Holbrooke also had kind words to say about Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan, Kabulov, but declined to go into detail about any strategic discussions between the two of them.
Holbrooke’s a good talker and he goes on over many other issues and into greater depth if you would like to read the whole thing.
