WELCOME SPEECH at the international conference

Afghanistan and the region: practical approach for sustainable development

MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF LITHUANIA AUDRONIUS AUBALIS
Vilnius, Lithuania
2012 September 19th

Your Excellencies, Ministers, Ambassadors,

Distinguished guests and dear friends,
I am honored to welcome you all at the international conference Afghanistan and the region:
practical approach for sustainable development. First I would like to express my deepest
gratitude to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan Dr. Zalmai Rassoul and the
delegation for coming to Lithuania and being a true partner in co-organizing this international
event.
I am very pleased to see here in Vilnius representatives from many neighboring countries
both of Afghanistan and Lithuania, donor and partner countries, international organizations,
NGOs, project implementers.
I am truly proud of our international community which could be compared to the club of
friends of Afghanistan, showing constant interest in the development issues of the country
and the region by gathering together to discuss the progress, analyze new challenges and
agree on next steps of joint efforts towards safe and stable future of the Afghanistan and
beyond.
There is a good tradition to meet regularly to share our ideas and find new and more effective
ways of action, to evaluate the results and impact. We all are witnessing lots of positive
developments and steps forward which were initiated since our previous Vilnius conference
on Afghanistan took place in 2010. During these two years international community had
several meetings in various places of the world. We spoke about security and stability in
Chicago, discussed sustainability issues in Tokyo. Very important decisions were taken in
Tokyo, where it was agreed upon mutual commitments of Afghanistan and the international
community on the way forward and beyond 2015.
This strong interest through years of cooperation developed into a long time commitments,
support and friendship with Afghanistan people. Using the opportunity I would like to
reassure once again people of Afghanistan on Lithuanias long term commitments to support

developments and progress of the country now and after 2014 when transition process will
be over.
Here I would like to express our deepest gratitude to our partners in Afghanistan in general
and in Province of Ghor in particular: the United States of America, Japan, Greece and many
others. We are grateful for your assistance, support and expertise, which could hardly be
overestimated.
The process of transition is speeding up, reforms are being initiated, and advanced ideas are
being successfully implemented. So let me commend my colleagues and friends from
Afghanistan for impressive progress of the country. I remember my last visit to Kabul in April
this year, where I had a chance to ascertain of the progress myself. Only because of hard and
devoted work of Afghani people remarkable results were achieved. Among ones to be
mentioned the Afghan-led and regionally owned Istanbul Process, regional economic
cooperation promotion efforts like RECCA [Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on
Afghanistan] and numerous other.
This naturally widens the range of questions and issues in our discussions. After discussing
and analyzing the problematic of national level developments in earlier international
meetings, today we propose to speak from the perspective of regional cooperation by
discussing the variety of forms of regional collaboration, joint initiatives, illustrated by
practical examples and discover best which could be used and applied by people, NGOs,
countries and international organizations for the benefit of Afghanistan.
The conference I am opening today is a perfect place to hear the voice of Afghanistan, its
expectations, expertise and evaluation on projects and proposals for the future. In this context
it is important that we would hear the vision of Afghanistan on its role in the region.
Cooperation can rely only on key elements such as trust, mutual understanding and strong
will to work together. Lithuania just like other countries would like to share its own
experience accumulated through many years of cooperation with neighboring countries.
Being young and shy on the first days of the re-established independence, more than 20 years
ago, Lithuania step-by-step restored relations with its neighbors, successfully joined
networks and cooperated closely on different levels in the region. Today, by developing and
implementing regional initiatives, Lithuania has become a reliable and strong partner. As one
of best examples of regional cooperation in our perspective I would like to note the Nordic
and Baltic cooperation, which gained recognition as a flagship format in the European Union. I
am sure my colleagues from neighboring countries will be speaking on this today.
Every region has its own best ways and formats of cooperation. I invite our speakers to share
their views and experience on regional cooperation initiatives, to present their projects as
practical examples. By discussing and sharing the experience on various regional cooperation
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types, instruments we are trying to identify those, which could be applied in Afghanistan. I
strongly believe we are ready to step into a phase of better and stronger regional cooperation
between Afghanistan and neighboring countries.

Your Excellencies,
There could not be ready recipes or magic formulas on most effective initiatives for the social,
economic and political development, but I believe open and serious discussion could be a step
forward in finding the best answers. I invite all of us to be open and creative in our debates
and bravely present non-tradition approaches, ideas and proposals, based on the best
experience of your home regions.
Once again I would like to thank you all for coming. Your experience, expertise and readiness
to share your knowledge and ideas are highly valuable and needed. I wish to all of us fruitful
discussions, interesting findings and observations.