Thank you.
Mr. Chair, committee members, colleagues, I would like to start by expressing my thanks to all of you for allowing me the opportunity to share my views on the role that Pakistan has played, which is an important component in the overall mission in Afghanistan.
This role, which is critically important, must continue. It must continue in helping NATO and Canada achieve our objectives in Afghanistan. It's timely for the committee to be focusing on this question as the international community increasingly encourages and engages Pakistan in our Afghanistan strategy. And I am certain that Canadians would agree with that.
This has been an issue of much discussion in the public and private forum of late. And after almost 30 years of turmoil and civil war, it's time for Afghanistan to rejoin the community of nations as a stable, secure, and self-sustaining democracy that will last and never again serve as a haven for terrorist groups. This long-term objective informs our nation-building activities in Afghanistan, activities that fall into three broad categories: helping to enhance security and stabilize the country; helping to strengthen accountability and representative government and democracy building; and helping to reduce poverty and improve the lives of Afghans.
Clearly, Mr. Chair, Canadians are in Afghanistan defending Canada's national interests by fighting against the threat of international terrorism. Canada and its numerous international partners have the means to help, and I would argue that there is a moral obligation for us to do so, that is, to help Afghanistan rebuild so that its people can live their lives free from oppression, violence, and the abysmal conditions that existed under a Taliban government.
The new government has been clear since our election that we stand for basic Canadian values: freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights. We are playing an important part as a responsible NATO partner in a UN-backed mission and as a global actor by standing up for those values. And we are delivering these principles and values, along with humanitarian aid and relief, into this region.
Our efforts are already paying dividends. The December 2001 Bonn agreement, agreed to by a wide spectrum of Afghan interests, established the first phase of national reconstruction and consolidation. It outlined a basic framework of timetables for implementing a new and democratic Afghan state. The Bonn agreement led to the creation of a new constitution and the holding of successful presidential, parliamentary, and provincial elections, all of which enjoyed high rates of participation. Voter turnout was higher than 60%, and almost half of all voters were women, which is unprecedented in that country, I'm quick to add.
Mr. Chairman, Afghans expressed remarkable resolve by participating in these historic elections. They did so often under a threat of violence, but by so doing they have clearly indicated their intention to chart a new course for their country through the democratic process. While elections are an important part of that, democracy is the surest, safest route to lasting stability.
With the Bonn Agreement benchmarks met, a new five-year road map, the Afghanistan Compact, was agreed to last January by the Afghan government and 60 other members of the international community. Over the next five years, the Compact will guide our joint efforts through Afghanistan’s next phase of recovery. The Compact is a comprehensive five-year strategy incorporating security, governance and development benchmarks, which the Afghan government and its international partners have agreed to pursue jointly.
Mr. Chair, this is why Canada has brought together elements from the Canadian Forces, Foreign Affairs, the Canadian International Development Agency, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in a whole of government approach to addressing the compact benchmarks. Working together, we're doing the following: promoting the development of a stable and secure environment in Afghanistan; helping to build governance capacity in that country; and reforming Afghanistan's security sector, including policing and border control.
The overall objective of these activities, of course, is to create a conducive environment in which the reconstruction efforts can take place under an umbrella of security. Bringing together the best of what Canada can offer, we are making a meaningful contribution to international reconstruction and stabilization efforts there, but there's still much more to be done.
Implementing the Afghan compact and meeting the goals we have set with the Government of Afghanistan and our international partners will be an enormous challenge, and the costs of failing to deliver are equally enormous. Some would call this the challenge of our time, and our nation in generations to come will look at this as a defining moment.
Nation building is a complex process, and only a comprehensive and sustained effort by all players will ensure our success. Canada and NATO have long recognized the regional nature of the nation-building exercise we have undertaken in Afghanistan. This recognition is perhaps best exemplified through the establishment last year of an annual regional economic cooperation conference in Afghanistan, more commonly known or referred to as the RECC. It brings focus and foresight to the building of the Afghan economy and Afghan stability.
Meetings of the RECC bring together Afghanistan and its neighbours, along with representatives from the G-8 group of nations and the key international organizations, to develop regional cooperation plans to promote economic development and security in Afghanistan and the entire region. In fact, Mr. Chairman, my colleague, the parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, Mr. Deepak Obhrai, has just returned from representing Canada at that second conference meeting, which took place in New Delhi last week.
While we recognize the importance of the multilateral mechanisms such as the RECC, we also accept that many of the challenges we face are best treated as issues between Afghanistan and its immediate neighbours. It was in recognition of this that the so-called tripartite commission was established in June 2003. This commission is a group of military and diplomatic representatives from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and NATO who meet about every two months to work out measures for improving security cooperation among the various players. The 19th meeting of the tripartite commission just wrapped up in Kabul on November 12. Some of the issues currently being addressed by the commission include the following: Afghan-Pakistan border security, which I expect we'll discuss further here; improved military intelligence sharing amongst the parties; the development of more effective countermeasures for dealing with the improvised explosive devices, the IEDs; and finally, enhancing operational cooperation between NATO and Afghan security forces.
Mr. Chair, the establishment of the tripartite commission is a recognition of the fact that solutions to many of the challenges we face in Afghanistan will surely not be found solely within the Afghan borders, and that the integral role Pakistan plays in this commission is a further recognition that of Afghanistan's neighbours, Pakistan is arguably the most important. There are many reasons why this is the case, but one way or another they all lead back to the fact that the international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is not being monitored or policed to the extent necessary. You've heard many of the expressions to describe it as “porous”, as “open”.
While many efforts are being made, there is one reality that can't be denied, and that is that 40 million Pashtuns are estimated to live along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. It is from this tribal group that the Taliban insurgents who are attacking our troops derive most of their support—not solely, but this is the chief source. Moreover, it is estimated that some 30,000 Pashtuns move, effectively unhindered, back and forth across the Afghanistan border every day.
Just to put it in some historical context, if I might, Mr. Chair, this border was officially drawn by the British government—the British Indian government—and the Afghanistan kingdom back in 1893. It's been treated as an international border, while at the same time Afghanistan has never recognized it and has disputed it from its origins.
Mr. Chair, we must recognize the effort Pakistan has undertaken in recent years to mitigate cross-border infiltration into Afghanistan. However, much more needs to be done. They have talked about fences; they have talked about mines, which we oppose; aerial surveillance. Again, I will come back to this subject, but they have deployed some 90,000 troops into the border regions and have suffered over 800 casualties fighting insurgents since 2002. Nevertheless, we believe President Musharraf's government can and must do more, and, Mr. Chairman, Canada is willing to help.
As I told Pakistan's Prime Minister Aziz at the recent micro-credit international gathering in Halifax, Canada maintains a strategic friendship with Pakistan based on a broad range of mutual interests. And although security concerns remain at the forefront of our engagement, we accept that there are limits on what can be achieved through military cooperation alone.
Canada has done much in recent years to assist Pakistan outside of the security sector. For example, the Canadian International Development Agency is a significant contributor to development efforts in Pakistan, including the innovative $132 million debt for education swap, which will convert Pakistan's bilateral debt to Canada into increased spending on education in Pakistan. We hope that through such endeavours the Government of Pakistan will be better able to enhance and expand its public education system, ideally doing away with situations where parents have no real choice but to send their children to unregistered madrassas for formal education. We have seen, sadly, that these have often become recruiting centres for extremism.
Canada also gave generously to relief and reconstruction efforts following the earthquake in Pakistan in October 2005. Last month, on the first anniversary of the earthquake, Minister for International Assistance Verner announced a further contribution of $40 million for reconstruction assistance, bringing Canada’s total contribution to more than $130 million.
On top of these efforts, Mr. Chair, we are fortunate to enjoy a mature relationship with Pakistan to also promote Canadian values within the Musharraf government, including human rights, full democracy and good governance, as well as non-proliferation arms control and disarmament objectives.
In our relations we have always concentrated and encouraged a greater separation of Pakistan's political and military establishments and a strengthened commitment to democratic principles. President Musharraf has committed to free and fair elections in 2007, I note, and we have worked with Pakistan on previous occasions to urge them to embrace more true democratic principles. And while we have not uniformly seen eye to eye on all matters, democracy in particular, the Pakistani government has never backed away from engaging us on these difficult issues. I would say that this is true of the meeting I had with the Prime Minister of Pakistan only a few weeks ago.
Nevertheless, the level of political and military engagement in Pakistan is arguably greater now than at any point in the past, and in March of this year, Prime Minister Harper and Defence Minister O'Connor visited Pakistan, and Minister O'Connor made a return visit this past September. On both occasions we raised the importance of security and development missions in Afghanistan with the Government of Pakistan and the premium we placed on Pakistan's cooperation. We also raised with their government our concerns regarding the activities of insurgents within the Pakistani territory. In fact, Pakistani Prime Minister Aziz and I discussed again these same issues this past month in Halifax. I also had similar discussions with President Musharraf when he was in attendance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month.
All of this, Mr. Chair, is to say that Canada, along with our allies, continues to encourage Pakistan to step up its efforts to prevent the cross-border movement of insurgents between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Specifically, we requested Pakistan's efforts to seek out and arrest senior Taliban figures inside their country; improve border security; sign, ratify, and implement key United Nations conventions and resolutions against terrorism; legislate and enforce more robust anti-money laundering laws and counter-narcotics training; and work to prevent the exploitation by insurgents of refugee camps inside Pakistan. We believe these constitute realistic objectives that Pakistan can do, but they can't do it alone. They can do it with our assistance, and we will positively contribute to the attainment of the international community's objectives there.
Mr. Chair, I believe you will find the record will show that the Minister of National Defence, who appeared before you, also spoke of a further confidence-building measure, and that includes the proposal—and I believe there has been some action on this file--to have liaison officers, with Pakistan having a liaison officer inside Afghanistan while we would have a similar officer serving in their country.
While we ask more from Pakistan, we ourselves are also willing to do more to provide assistance. Canada is working with Pakistan's security and law enforcement personnel to increase their capacity to deal with border management and related issues. We're working to enhance the liaison arrangements, as I mentioned, between Canadian Forces stationed in Pakistan and Pakistan's armed forces, consistent with our understanding that security is not only about military threats. We're looking at innovative ways where we can better harness our development assistance tools to help to improve the livelihoods on both sides of the border. In this way, we hope to give young people, who are most vulnerable to insurgents' propaganda, a reason to reject any calls to join that cause.
I would like to give you two examples of the additional types of activities in the works.
The capacity of Pakistan's security forces in the border regions is limited, particularly given the enormous security challenges they face in the rugged terrain. Military personnel are spread thin and often lack the proper equipment, particularly communications technology. This lack of capacity contributes to the degree of lawlessness throughout the border regions and undermines government efforts to address the cross-border movement of insurgents.
Through my department's global peace and security fund and counterterrorism capacity-building fund, we are looking to increase the capacity of Pakistani security forces. Projects currently being developed, Mr. Chair, include a Pakistani police capacity-building course that aims to have our RCMP trainers work with Pakistan to enhance the professional development of their security and law enforcement personnel along the border and elsewhere, and the provision of appropriate communications equipment, including satellite phone technical assistance, to the relevant Pakistani authorities to help secure the Pakistan-Afghan border and respond to the presence of security threats--that is, to detect and interdict smugglers and cross-border movement of insurgents.
I'd mention a few of the other examples, but this is just some of the work we are doing with Pakistan and our NATO allies to identify further opportunities and further engagement at the border.
Mr. Chair, in closing, I would like to reiterate my appreciation for the work this committee has undertaken. I commend you for recognizing the key role Pakistan plays in helping to achieve Canada's and our allies' objectives in Afghanistan. These issues are complex, and I think it goes without saying that there are no easy answers, but I'm confident that we can work with Pakistan and the international community to resolve the problems that exist. To paraphrase my friend, Minister O'Connor, we appreciate what Pakistan is doing, but we know they can do more.
I thank you for your time. I anticipate and appreciate your questions.