AFGHANISTAN

Documents & Texts from America.gov

17 January 2007
Progress Seen in Securing Pakistan-Afghanistan Border

By David McKeeby
USINFO Staff Writer

Washington -– The United States wants to help Pakistan and Afghanistan make progress in securing their restive border region with a new plan to promote economic opportunities for area residents, says a top U.S. official.

“What I have found in my conversations in Kabul [Afghanistan], as well as my conversations here, is that there is a strong desire on both sides to continue those discussions, to resolve the issues and to move forward. And I think that is very good,” said Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, at a January 12 briefing following meetings with senior officials in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Topping the security agenda in these talks, Boucher said, was the continuing cross-border infiltration of Taliban militants and al-Qaida terrorists between Afghanistan and Pakistan’s tribal regions.

Despite progress by Pakistani security forces in tightening control on their side of the border, “these groups have been able to use Pakistani territory; some of them continue to have people here and operations here that are a threat to Pakistan, a threat to Afghanistan, a threat to all of us. And we all need to work together to stop them,” Boucher said.

Boucher also cited the rapid expansion of Afghan army and police forces, NATO’s successes in stabilizing Afghanistan’s turbulent southeast and Pakistan’s increased security presence as positive trends toward securing the border region, despite the likelihood of continued violence from terrorists and narcotics traffickers.

But military force alone is insufficient to secure the border region. The true challenge, Boucher said, is not only extending the government's authority to the border regions, but also the benefits of government, such as new roads, better schools, a sound justice system and business opportunities that would provide area residents alternatives to build better lives.

“The United States can support efforts with more reconstruction, more security, more opportunity for people on the Afghan side, and we can support Pakistan’s efforts to provide more opportunities, more economic opportunity in better governance and more security for people on the Pakistani side,” he said.

To this end, Boucher told journalists about a U.S. plan to fund reconstruction opportunity zones –- industrial parks on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border where local businesses can set up shop. In addition to government incentives offered to Afghan and Pakistani business owners, jointly produced goods from these manufacturers also would enjoy duty-free access to U.S. markets.

Boucher said the State Department is developing a draft law to fund the reconstruction opportunity zones, which he said the U.S. Congress would consider later this year.

“I think it's really a question: can you bring these areas into the national economy, into the global economy?” Boucher said. “What sort of economic advantage can we provide for industry to establish itself, or jobs to [be established] in this region so that people have a different kind of future than taking up the gun?”

From more information, see South and Central Asia.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

back to top ^