Mr. President,

My delegation is greatful for this opportunity to take the floor in this important debate and to add a few remarks to what just has been said by Portugal as EU Presidency, on our commitment to peace security and sustainable development in Afghanistan.

The excellent and comprehensive report by the Secretary General demonstrates the complexity of the problems Afghanistan and the international community are facing. Thanks to the continuing support of the international community, the government of Afghanistan is increasing its capacity and effectiveness. Millions of refugees have returned, millions of children – girls too – go to school now and the majority of Afghans have access to basic health services. Although many challenges remain, there is no reason for doom and gloom.

This Council rightly underscores the synergy in objectives between the UN and ISAF. ISAF has settled in all over the country and has shown that it can deliver basic security within the Afghan Development Zones. That is also what the Netherlands (with 1800 troops) and Australia are showing in Uruzgan. In the troubled southern provinces, the Taliban is under pressure, although the threat of asymmetrical attacks has not subsided.

The ISAF mission is a state-of-the-art ‘stabilisation mission’. A mission in which human security and creating an environment for better government and socio-economic development are centrepoint. We are gaining valuable experience in Afghanistan that can be put to use in other fragile or failed states.

ISAF is an assistance force providing security and stability so that the legitimate Afghan government, in cooperation with international organisations and other civilian development actors can succeed. ISAF is no reconstruction entity. The Netherlands would like to see more complementarity between the UN, NATO and the EU. We are very pleased that the EU has started a police mission in Afghanistan. We will continue to encourage UNAMA to open offices as a matter of priority in all southern provinces. The UN as a whole needs to engage much stronger, in our view, in the civil area.

Mr. President,

All of us are in Afghanistan because we have a clear cut security interest to be there and because of our responsibility to the Afghan people.

But this isn’t the only reason. Afghanistan is one of the poorest nations on earth. By investing in development in Afghanistan the international community is working towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals in one of the most difficult environments possible. The security situation and the lack of capacity on the part of both the government and NGO’s are hampering development plans and programmes. Capacity building needs our immediate attention. Capacity can only be built by working through Afghan national programmes. We ask the national government to actively promote the roll out of national programmes into the provinces, even difficult ones like Uruzgan.

The urgent challenge right now is to bring better governance to the people of Afghanistan, also in the more far away provinces. Today we should, as a matter of priority, focus our efforts on the growing discontent among the Afghan population. People are growing impatient. They want central and provincial government to offer the basic services they have been promised since 2002.

A word on counter-narcotics:

This is an area where many of the problems that plague Afghanistan come together: lack of effective governance, corruption, the influence of powerbrokers and the insurgents. There are no easy solutions. We need patience and long term commitment to poverty reduction, more specifically rural development. Only an integrated approach can help us. The Afghan counter narcotics strategy has all the elements. We need to insist on its correct implementation. Our experience in Uruzgan has taught us that, though eradication is an integral part of this strategy, eradication should not be performed in isolation, but should be preceded by providing viable alternatives. And even though eradication can be an option, spraying is not in our view. We believe it is too indiscriminate and has too many health risks.

Finally a word on staying power:

The Netherlands strongly believes that the international community must commit to Afghanistan for the long haul. We stayed militarily in Bosnia for 15 years. International solidarity, our own national security and a moral obligation to the Afghan people warrant a continued multilateral presence in Afghanistan. The debate in the Netherlands on prolonging our stay in Uruzgan has, however, not yet been finalized. In that context the Netherlands calls upon UN member states to contribute personnel, equipment and other resources to ISAF, especially for deployment in the troubled Southern provinces.

Thank you, Mr. President.