G8 Foreign Ministers' Statement on Afghanistan

November 26, 2001

We welcome the initiative of the Secretary General of the UN and of his Special Representative, Amb. Brahimi, to convene a meeting of Afghan representatives in Bonn this week to work towards the full implementation of UNSCR 1378 and the urgent establishment of a new, transitional administration in Afghanistan. We hope that this step will facilitate the achievement of a political solution in order to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan and to the surrounding region. In expressing our full support to Amb. Brahimi in his endeavour, we call on the Afghan participants to take full advantage of this opportunity.

We stress that the aim of this process should be to install in Afghanistan a broad-based and multi-ethnic government of national unity, ensuring the full independence and territorial integrity of the country and committed to peace with Afghanistan's neighbours.

We emphasise that respect by a new Afghan leadership of human rights, regardless of gender, ethnicity or religion, and of international humanitarian law will be a decisive factor to implement programmes of international assistance to the country's reconstruction. We welcome the recent senior officials' meeting on reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan in Washington. We look forward to the meeting, this week, organised by the World Bank, UNDP and the Asian Development Bank in Islamabad and to the larger meeting on reconstruction assistance at the ministerial level to be held in Japan in January.

We stress the urgency and gravity of the humanitarian situation and stress the necessity to continue to facilitate the urgent delivery of humanitarian assistance, particularly to refugees and displaced persons. We call for continued close coordination among governments, international institutions, and non-governmental organisations to mobilise resources and to provide humanitarian aid. In this regard, we support actions undertaken by the Afghanistan Support Group that will meet in Berlin in early December.

---

Source: Canada, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade