Minister Spantas Press conference in Kabul
06/08/2008 Dr. Ragin Dadfar Spanta the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan today august 6th 2008 participated in a press conference in Stoor palace of the Ministry and talked about his participation in the 15th ministerial conference of non-aligned countries in Tehran, participation of the President Karzai in the 15th summit of SAARC countries in Colombo, and official visit of the president to India in invitation of Dr. Singh, at the end of the conference he answered the questions of the media.
Minister Spanta said, Afghanistan which had the deputy chair of this movement in Tehran talked about the issues of progressive countries of the north and non-progressive countries of the south, environment, food crisis, and all those issues that are there in the agenda of third world countries.
In the sidelines of this conference the Foreign Ministers of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan had a bilateral meeting they talked about the cementing of the bilateral ties between the countries, construction of a railway track from the border areas of Turkmenistan to Afghanistan and various issues of interests came under discussion.
Also the Foreign Ministers of Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Iran met to discus the establishing a joint TV station with its station in Tajikistan and to follow up with the joint statement of the three FM s that was singed earlier.
Dr. Spanta while pointing out from the efforts of SAARC countries in standing up for the second green revolution in the region, establishment of developmental fund, and a SAARC university in Delhi, joint struggle against terrorism, poverty and food crisis are one of the main problems the SAARC countries are dealing it.
In the sidelines of this conference in the suggestion of Pakistani side Afghan president Hamid Karzai met with the Prime minister of Pakistan Syed Yousuf Raza gillani
In this meeting the issue related to the re-starting of the regional cooperation conference, naming the members of the small peace jirga, in principle it was agreed that the two sides will continue to fight terrorism.
Minister Spanta said Afghanistan will never surrender to the pressure of terrorism and will take decisions according to its national interests.
Meeting with the Pakistan delegation is in no way a deviation of from our stand against the terrorist organizations, Afghanistan restates its stand that the geography of war on terrorism should be moved to places where the safe havens of them are located.
The last stop of the president was India where he holds a number of meetings with various high ranking Indian officials, president insisted to use all legal tools against terrorism.
Dr. Spanta emphasized on the aged friendship of the two countries and said we must learn from the modesty and variety of religions that live side by side in India.
No country can use the territory of Afghanistan against any other country, our friendship with India is not a coalition against any other country, he said the additional assistance of 450 million of dollar from India to us is a clear indication of our long and time tested friendship; the new Zarag-Delaram road will soon be inaugurate.
Minister Spanta said his non-participation in the SAFMA was a technical misunderstanding and expressed his sorry for not being to able to take part in that particular conference in Colombo.