Nickolay Mladenov at the international anniversary conference on Afghanistan in Bonn:
05 December 2011 News
There can be no security without the integration of women in society, respect for human rights and building of the rule of law. This was said by Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov during an international conference on Afghanistan, held in Bonn, Germany. He announced that Bulgaria would start to decrease its military presence in Afghanistan in 2013 and after 2014, only experts involved in training would remain.
The conference marked precisely 10 years since the first such meeting on Afghanistan, held in Bonn on December 5 2001. The meeting was opened today by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who said that many of the initial expectations about the the process had proven unrealistic. The conference was attended by representatives from more than 100 countries, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The main objective of the meeting is to co-ordinate the actions that the international community will take after 2014, when Afghanistan will have to take full responsibility for their own security. The main message from world leaders was that the country will not be abandoned, and that aid must be transformed from military programmes, to reconstruction and development at national and regional level. For its part, Afghanistan must confirm an even stronger will to enforce the rule of law and to carry out the reforms necessary to make the country a strong and independent state that works for its citizens.