Pakistani Foreign Minister
Makhdoom Shah Mahmood
Qureshi

Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Foreign Minister of Pakistan, opened EWI’s seventh annual Worldwide Security Conference arguing for dialogue, development and deterrence to stabilize the Pakistan-Afghanistan border regions.

Qureshi emphasized an urgent need to build trust between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai, adviser to the President of Afghanistan on Homeland Security, echoed the need for cooperation. Stanekzai also highlighted the regional nature of Afghanistan’s security challenges and the need to build political support for counterinsurgency operations. “We need to reconnect with our people,” he said, and called for a genuine process of national reconciliation. “Empty promises will destroy the whole process,” he added.

Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai,
adviser to the President
of Afghanistan on
Homeland Security

Full text of select speeches:

Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Foreign Minister of Pakistan (39K PDF)

Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai, adviser to the President of Afghanistan on Homeland Security (77K PDF)

Ali A. Jalali, former Minister of Interior of Afghanistan; Professor, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (49K PDF)

The conference brought together government, business and civil society leaders from around the world. In addition to the stability of Afghanistan and Southwest Asia, the event covered pressing issues from cybersecurity to energy security to weapons of mass destruction.

Attendees included Lieutenant General Mohammad Akram, Afghanistan’s First Deputy Minister of Defense, Peter Altabef, President of Dell Services, Ali Asghar Soltanyeh, Iran’s Ambassador to the IAEA, Zhou Yonglin Deputy Secretary-General of the Internet Society of China and Stein Schjolberg, former Chairman of the High-Level Experts Group on Cybersecurity and Cybercrime at the International Telecommunication Union.

A more complete report of the conference’s recommendations will be posted here soon.