CEO demands serious regional cooperation for counter-terrorism

Afghanistan Chief Executive Officer, (CEO), Abdullah Abdullah in the power-packed seminar on Counter-terrorism called for a serious regional cooperation for counter-terrorism.

“The failures to follow through, the missed opportunities for regional cooperation, and the continued pursuit of zero-sum policies characterize these three eras. And together they have contributed to creating an enabling environment for terrorism and its utilization as an instrument of state policy,” CEO said.

Abdullah noted that before the imposed conflicts, Afghanistan used to be one of the most peaceful countries in the region, despite our rife poverty. “But we became one of the last victims of the Cold War, as the former Soviet Union invaded and occupied our country.”

“In defense of our sovereignty and freedom, the Afghan people rose in resistance against the Soviets. And in our just war of liberation, we relied on those in the international community that shared our values and offered us resistance support,” he said.

Abdullah went on to say that the end of the Cold War led to a power vacuum not only in the region but across the World and that regional players began to act irresponsibly in an effort to protect their self-interest and to strengthen their strategic position in their respective regions.

“In effect, the end of the Cold War ushered in the beginning of regional cold wars, as opposed to a level playing field for regional cooperation.”

He went on to say that ever since, states have often utilized proxy wars to serve their narrowly defined national security interests, disregarding “win-win” cooperation promoted by numerous UN Security Council resolutions backed by annual General Assembly debates.

But the situation has yet to change, even though lip-service is often given in support of a paradigm shift to results-oriented regional cooperation, he said.

Considering this dynamic, we are effectively facing a regional cold war where terrorism has become the principal instrument of projecting influence by some states against others, he said.

“As a consequence, there is no universal appreciation of the grave danger, which terrorism poses to regional stability and international peace and security.”

Although nations generally agree that terrorism threatens the security of the whole humanity, each state is developing its own homegrown capabilities to tackle the direct threat it faces within its milieu. They have been reluctant to adopt and implement a global counter-terrorism action plan, even though terrorism sees no borders, nationalities, religions, creeds or cultures, he said.

“I propose that each region assess the set of threats terrorism poses to their security and development and then agree to draft and implement a joint a counter-terrorism action plan,” Abdullah added.

This comes as India’a President also complaint over failure of regional countries commitments in terms of counter-terrorism.