NEW YORK - Media stakeout following the briefing to the Security Council by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto.

TRANSCRIPT

MEDIA STAKEOUT FOLLOWING SRSG TADAMICHI YAMAMOTO’S
BRIEFING TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL

New York – 21 June 2017

(near verbatim)

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Participants:

• UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto

Tadamichi Yamamoto: Thank you very much for gathering here.

We’ve just had a Security Council briefing on Afghanistan. We felt that the discussion was substantive, particularly because we had this 31 May blast, and the other security incidents which had rocked the country in terms of security, and of course there were issues of political unity which came out in Kabul. But the good thing was that, because of this incident, voices of support, solidarity, were voiced by many countries who spoke. And the determination and the need for the international community to keep on supporting Afghanistan in all its aspects towards peace and stability was confirmed. And the determination was clearer than ever.

The second point I would say is that the need for strengthening the security was voiced by many countries, particularly the need for investigation and also to strengthen the security apparatus, both the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior.

The third thing which came out clearly was there was almost consensus for the need to strengthen the political unity amongst the political leaders in that country, both in and out of the government, particularly in the face of these attacks. And in order to be able to cope with these security threats, the unity was stressed as being more important than ever.

The other issue, the fourth issue, was the need for the regional cooperation, to strengthen the efforts for bringing countries together, for bringing about peace, and the need for cooperation among the countries, particularly those in the region, the neighbours, to try to address the situation.

So I would say that those four things were perhaps highlighted much more starkly than other briefings that I have attended.

Question: I have a question about the security posture or military presence in Afghanistan. What would you like to expect the US to do in their review on military presence in Afghanistan? Would you like the US to send more troops?

Yamamoto: The United States is of course undergoing its review. My understanding is that they are trying to look at the review from a comprehensive perspective, of trying to strengthen the security and the peace efforts in that country; and that is very welcome. Of course we have not yet had the sign of what they are actually going to be doing, but we already hear that in terms of the security, that they are fully committed to keep on supporting the Afghan Government, and that it might even be strengthened, and that is really welcome.

The Afghan forces are now being trained and being organized with the help of the international forces, particularly the NATO and United States, and this will obviously have a good impact on bringing, upgrading the ability to deal with the security situation, and as people also agreed today, the security is the fundamental basis for doing, enabling other activities to take place, including business, development and human rights.

Thank you very much.