 Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending where you're joining us for today's event. I wanna thank all of you for taking the time for joining us for this important discussion and a special word of thanks to his Excellency, Minister Henif Atmar for taking time of his very busy schedule to join us for this important and timely discussion. I wanna invite all of you to also take part in the discussion after Minister Atmar's opening remarks. I'll then ask two or three questions, but then we'll open it up for audience questions. And you can submit your questions in the chat box, which is immediately below the video screen that you're watching today's program on. We'd also invite you to join us via Twitter with the hashtag, off gone piece, that's hashtag, off gone piece. And if you're submitting questions, please do give your name and where you're joining us from today in terms of asking the question. USIP has been working in Afghanistan since 2002 to prevent, mitigate and resolve violent conflict. But for USIP, trying to provide support, a sustainable peace process in Afghanistan is our highest priority program. Certainly for us in the Asia program, this is where we're devoting a lot of our resources. We work with partners at the local level in Afghanistan, at the national level in Afghanistan, at the regional level, as well as the international level to try to support a peace process that listens to and is responsive to the needs of all Afghans who are desperate to end four decades of conflict. Today's discussion really couldn't have come at a more critical time. I have to say we did try to time it to start with the start of intra-Afghan negotiations. But that proved to be a bit of a moving target that was too difficult to pin down. So we thought we'd seize the moment and the opportunity to go ahead and have the discussion today. We did think that momentum was building for the start of direct talks first after the US Taliban agreement on February 29th when talks were scheduled to start on March 10th and then got delayed. We then thought after the July Eid ceasefire, we might see the talks give more, there's more momentum for the start of talks. And that was followed of course by the consultative lawyer, Jurga, earlier this month approved the release of 400 Taliban prisoners to facilitate the start of talks. However, new obstacles to talks have appeared and it's now not exactly clear when the intra-Afghan negotiations will begin. I did see one news report just in the last couple hours that Chairman Abdullah did mention that he thinks that negotiations will begin next week, although with the important caveat with relative confidence. So we'll see, but meanwhile, Taliban attacks continue unabated, violent levels that are far too high and innocent civilians desperate for peace are continuing to suffer. In addition to the importance of the intra-Afghan talks and the negotiations, you have building and strengthening regional and international support for peace in Afghanistan is critically important, that peace is to be achieved and sustained. Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs of course plays a key role in building support for the peace process between Afghanistan's diverse neighbors in the region and other major regional and international actors. While USIP is at the honor of hosting Minister Atmar on many occasions before USIP, it is my distinct pleasure to welcome him back virtually, unfortunately for the first time in his capacity as the acting minister of foreign affairs. Again, I wish we could be doing this in our lovely building in Washington, but the advantage of doing this virtually is I think we get a much broader and wider audience than if we were hosting it in our own office. Prior to this position, Minister Atmar served as national security advisor from 2014 to 2018, as Minister of Interior from 2008 to 2010, as Minister of Education from 2006 to 2008, and as Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development from 2002 to 2006. So he certainly has a wide perspective and familiarity of a lot of the key issues relevant to building peace in Afghanistan. During the 1990s, when I first met minister, then Mr. Atmar, he was a highly respected aid worker holding senior positions in international aid organizations and providing humanitarian and development assistance in Afghanistan. And with that, I'd like to again welcome Minister Atmar and to provide your keynote remarks and thanks again for taking the time to join us today. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Wilde. Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim. First, let me thank you so much for organizing this event. And I thank your participants today for their interest in Afghanistan and in the future of our peace efforts. We are so appreciative of the work of USAIP, a very well-respected organization in Afghanistan, and we are fully committed to our public engagement, public access to information and holding public debates. We are particularly giving importance to this kind of engagement with our U.S. friends and colleagues. We consider the United States government and people as very well appreciated stakeholders, both in terms of their investment in Afghanistan but also their interest in the outcome of the peace process. Let me take this opportunity to offer my appreciation for the sacrifices of the brave U.S. men and women in uniform and those of our other international partners as well as Afghan brave soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for our shared security and defense. It's also important that we make an acknowledgement of the generosity of the U.S. taxpayers who contributed so generously for the rebuilding of Afghanistan to be a better place for its citizens. It's also my duty to speak on behalf of the Afghan people and government and people and express our heartfelt thank you to all of you. We are praying also for all of those who have been affected by the pandemic of COVID-19 and also recent floods in Afghanistan. And this is an important occasion on which to once again renew the call for a humanitarian ceasefire so that we, the government of Afghanistan, together with our international partners reach out to Afghans throughout the country with our life-thieving and life-sustaining services. Dr. Wilder, as you suggested, I thought of at least three topics to offer some quick perspectives to kick-start the discussion today. The first issue I wanted to talk about is a quick update on the peace process and the progress we've made so far. You shared the good news and our optimism that we are much closer to the start of a peace negotiation than we have ever been before. We are optimistic that next week we will be making a big progress in this respect. The last hurdles in terms of release of prisoners and a couple of difficult questions that we had are being addressed successfully. So hopefully we will be soon done with all those initial hurdles that were in the way of starting the peace negotiation. This is important to say that the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is fully committed to peace and political settlement and because of that deep commitment we have already delivered on most of the obligations and promises we've made to start the peace negotiation. You may already know that over 5,000 of Taliban's prisoners have been already released and some more will be released in the coming days so hopefully this will remove the last obstacle that the Taliban have had for the start of the negotiation. Our inclusive negotiating team is ready fully representing all social and political groups in Afghanistan to engage the Taliban negotiating team as soon as they are ready. Let me take this opportunity to thank our international partners who have made this progress possible. First of all is our US colleagues we are appreciative of the US peace efforts. There are other 5 countries who have helped greatly in the process Qatar, Uzbekistan, Norway, Indonesia and Germany. Also let me take this opportunity to thank our neighbors and extended neighbors including Pakistan, Iran, China, India, Russia, Turkey, UAE and Saudi Arabia for their continued help in the process. There are already 12 countries that have offered to host the negotiation peace negotiation which is a good example of regional consensus and international cooperation and interest in support of the Afghan peace process. However there are challenges and this brings me to my second issue. The challenges that are very much important for the first phase of the peace process some of which were already discussed by the Afghan peace consultative lawyer Jerga that you referred to Dr Wilder. The Jerga in fact reviewed the entire peace process and also the questions, policy questions that the Afghan government put to the Jerga. Of course one of the key questions was how can we overcome the hurdles i.e. the release of the 400 Taliban prisoners that were considered to be a high value prisoners out of the 5000 and then to also spell out the demands of the Afghan people for the rest of the peace process. The lawyer Jerga came up with some specific recommendations to the government of Afghanistan on the release of the prisoners and proceeding with the peace process. The first conditionality that they openly talked about was for the prisoners release not to go back to the battlefield. Second, they demanded strongly the release of the Afghan government prisoners by the Taliban. They asked for immediate starts of the peace negotiation between the government and the Taliban and they asked for reduction of violence and a humanitarian ceasefire. So those are the key demands as spelled out by our consultative peace Jerga that we have to pursue for the start of the peace negotiation and pursue it through the process as well. This calls for further collaboration between the Afghan government and its international partners. Now the final issue I wanted to quickly talk about is it's not just the process and the key prerequisites for the process it's also the outcome and the end state of the peace process that our people are extremely interested in. So the end state of the peace process was also talked about during our peace consultative Jerga and already national consensus is dealt for the end state. This end state is not just an ideological position of the people of Afghanistan it's a necessary condition for any lasting peace in Afghanistan and it's a necessary condition to make sure that Afghanistan never becomes a safe haven for international terrorism and that our region is secure and stable. So what are the key elements of this end state that we will have to pursue through the negotiation? It's a peace process aimed to achieve a goal the goal is defined by the Afghan people and it has the support of the region and our international partners so it's basically achieving peace within the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. There are three important features of that Islamic Republic of Afghanistan that we need to be aware of. First as a state it will have to remain an independent sovereign unified state with its full territorial integrity. Second in terms of its governance it will have to be a constitutional representative democracy on the strong foundation of human rights women's rights and the rights of our minorities and all of our citizens if you like. Now this is important our people always talk about not only preserving but also advancing the achievements in human rights democracy and women's rights of the past 19 years. Now this is the reason which provides legitimacy for the pursuit of peace and the peace efforts of the government of Afghanistan. Now a third feature of the Islamic Republic that we need to preserve as the end state of the peace process is its foreign relations. In terms of first security Afghanistan should never become a safe heaven of international terrorism or the region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Yes we understand that the Taliban demand for the departure of foreign troops from Afghanistan but we stress on a drawdown conditions based drawdown of troops well we certainly demand the elimination and departure of all foreign fighters terrorist fighters in our country that's why it's important that ties to al Qaeda and other foreign fighters will have to be safe. It is also about the future of security cooperation Afghanistan will continue to honor its security agreements with the United States NATO and on the other hand Afghanistan will continue to cooperate with countries of the region especially those of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization because we have common threats and therefore we need to have a common responsibility a shared responsibility to defend our nations. Politically Afghanistan wish to pursue a multi-alignment policy because we want Afghanistan to be a place for cooperation of the region and the international community not a place for confrontation. Economically Afghanistan wishes again to rebuild its historical place in the region as a hub for trade, transit, investment and commerce. With that kind of vision we strongly believe that the in-state will be in the best interest of not just the Afghan people but also the United States our NATO partners as well as the region and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. I will stop here and see if friends have questions and comments for me. Thank you very much for those very substantive opening remarks. If I could just jump in with a few initial questions. I was also glad to hear your optimism about the possibility of starting next week but you then also mentioned some of the conditions set by the Lloyd-Jerga some of which don't sound to me like necessarily they could be reached by next week. So I guess I'm wondering what do you see as potential obstacles that could further delay the process or are you pretty confident that the conditions of the Lloyd-Jerga and others will be met so that the talks can indeed start next week? We are pretty much optimistic because so far the key obstacle as cited by the Taliban was the release of their prisoners and of course we also demanded the release of our prisoners. It seems that most of the hurdles have been either removed or we are in the process of building consensus on a solution. So I am cautiously optimistic that this will not be a further hurdle on the way. Of course there are those conditions set by the Lloyd-Jerga we do understand that not all of them will be met by the start of the peace negotiation but we are determined that they will have to be met through the process. One basic thing is that with the release of the last match of the Taliban prisoners we will have released by the end of next week over 5600 of Taliban's prisoners and the Taliban will have to honour their promise that these people will not go back to the battlefield. It is a big group of people and very dangerous people so we hope that our negotiation will help. Second, we want a reduction in violence and the immediate humanitarian ceasefire to be established so that we can reach our people with essential health and food security services. This is also in the interest of the Taliban. Now those things are to be negotiated hopefully agreed early on as the process starts. Thanks. In addition to Chairman Nabila's comments about talks perhaps starting next week I also saw one report this morning that the head of the Taliban negotiating team I'm sure Boston Exay had said that the intra-Afghan talks will be held in different countries. I know that I've been circulating for a while although I've not seen it formally announced by the head of the Taliban negotiating team but I was wondering what is the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's view on rotating talks? The first good news is that the Taliban and us have consensus on this issue so it's a good sign Yes, we want the negotiations to be hosted in countries that have had significant support for the peace process now this will also be important for further building regional consensus and support base for the peace process so it's important as I said Dr. Wilder that the United States and our regional partners are legitimate stakeholders in the process every one of them is concerned not only about the process but also about the outcome, the end state of the process because it will have a direct impact on their security on regional stability so they need to be part of the process now hosting the talks will also be one way of ensuring regional inclusion in the process but what is important that this will be among the Afghans between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban and our foreign friends and partners will be supporting the process Thanks, you did mention the regional neighbors I just wanted to come back to that as the Minister of Foreign Affairs how do you assess the regional support for the peace process and what do you think is the most useful thing your neighbors could do to support peace in Afghanistan the good news is that we have consensus on a number of issues in the region first, consensus on peace everybody in the region is supportive of the peace process second, consensus on reduction in violence and on humanitarian ceasefire and on comprehensive ceasefire we do have that consensus in the region now recently we have increasingly seen support from the region and our international partners for the end state that I just described briefly now this is critically important for us so that the region is supportive of the outcome that is consistent with the well and aspirations of the Afghan people this is good news however there is still a risk that some regional actors will be difficult to speak with any level of certainty but at least certain circles would want to pursue not an end state that the Afghan people demand or the majority of our international partners perhaps they might try to define the end state in terms of their narrow political national security interests that will be a serious danger to the peace process in Afghanistan so what we are asking our neighbors and regional partners is number one support the immediate start of the negotiation peace negotiation number two express your support for the end state and number three support the humanitarian ceasefire and the comprehensive ceasefire as a result of peace negotiation we are also asking our international partners to stick to those principal issues here what would be most dangerous for Afghanistan and the process and to be quite frank with you to everybody in the region by extension is that we lose the regional and international consensus for peace in Afghanistan thanks sticking to that team I'm going to open it up for some of the audience questions I have a question here from Andrin Raj of the Nordic counter terrorism network asks recently Pakistani military and diplomatic leaders met with Taliban negotiators including Malabarada and announced they were supporting peace efforts how does the Afghan government view this meeting and what do you understand as Pakistan's message to the top overall Taliban leaders we certainly support any effort by any country in support of the peace process Pakistan has a key role because of its significant influence with Taliban and we hope that they will continue to use that influence in support of the peace process we welcome their political support for the peace process but also their recent support and endorsement of the UN Security Council resolution especially when it comes to violence or those networks that continue to engage in terrorism against Afghans and our international partners this is very well appreciated however I would have recommended a slightly different approach to such engagement to my Pakistani friends I would certainly do that in my next conversation with them that it's important that the government of Afghanistan is part of the entire process because everybody and the international community have said and expressed their support for an Afghan owned and Afghan led peace process and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is representing the Afghan people and need to be closely engaged in the process and consulted Thanks, not surprisingly we have lots of media interest in today's event and I want to turn to a few questions from journalists starting with a question from Reuters correspondent Charlotte Greenfield who asks, China has sent signals that it is interested in becoming more involved in Afghanistan potentially with infrastructure investment have you or your office had much contact with China in recent weeks whether they can play a role in Afghanistan's economic and infrastructure development Well, we are working very closely with China again as I said Afghanistan works with our international partners US, NATO, Europe, Japan, Australia our regional partners such as China, Russia, India and our neighbors again, the reason for this is the nature of the threat we are together facing a common threat so therefore we have a common interest we are uniquely placed to see the commonality of that interest there may be many, many and indeed there are many differences among these actors elsewhere in the region and globally where we see them most in common is in Afghanistan and in the region and especially when it comes to the issue of counter-terrorism peace and reconciliation and long-term stability in the region now China is directly affected by terrorism in the region and China has a legitimate interest in stability in the region as well as cooperation with both Afghanistan and our regional partners so there are three things that we are discussing systematically with our Chinese friends one is the Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace process which is important and China understands the Afghan peace process is in fact a strategic investment in countering international terrorism in the region second point is the regional and international cooperation around and on Afghanistan so that Afghanistan does not become a place for confrontation and regional rivalries and finally it's the economic issue as you mentioned the way we would like to define the role that we can play is for Afghanistan to once again become the hub for trade, transit, investment and commerce just like we've been that hub for our shared civilization for centuries now this is important to see that Afghanistan is a land bridge between South Asia and Central Asia China and the Middle East and Afghanistan can potentially play an extremely important role in regional connectivity so all of those issues are very much relevant to our current discussion with our western partners as well as China and other regional partners Thanks, I could just stick to the economic theme and jump in with the question that there is the upcoming donor conference in November scheduled what will be the government of Afghanistan's key messages to Afghanistan's major donors in terms of continuing support to Afghanistan The first message that we will have is to thank them thank them for their generosity for their investment and support they do understand that succeeding in peace and stabilization of Afghanistan and the region is in the best interest of the region and the global community I would like to look at investment in Afghanistan from a perspective of shared interest in security, stability and economic recovery of the region Now from that perspective of course Afghanistan will continue to seek development assistance as well as other types of economic cooperation it's not just the aid that we will be seeking it's also market access it's technical assistance it's also investment and guarantees for legitimate foreign investment in Afghanistan because the goal for us is not to live on aid of other nations for many millennia we've been a self-reliant nation and we are absolutely confident that we will achieve self-reliance pretty soon, however given the nature of the fight against international terrorism Afghanistan simply does not have the resources which are required for this kind of counter-terrorism Dr. Wilder you and I have always been in discussion around these issues that Afghanistan is not only fighting on its behalf but it's fighting on behalf of the region and the global community also and this endeavor requires the kind of resources that are beyond the means of Afghanistan but hopefully if international investments now at this stage helps us with advancing the peace process and then the implementation of the peace agreement there will be significant reduction in security costs and there will be a significant increase in opportunities for economic investments this is the theme that we will take to the November conference but we will be also assuring our donors that Afghanistan is fully aware and committed to the mutual accountability and benchmarks between Afghanistan and the international community Thanks and just a message to viewers we have about 20 minutes left if you want to submit a question please do so through the chat box feature that's immediately below the video screen or video player that you're watching today's program from and please do identify yourself, your name and where you're asking your question from a journalist, Nick Schifrin from PBS News Hour asks what is the solution that's been found to Australian, Germany and our French concerns about prisoner releases and will Dr. Abdullah be leading the talks? Some of our international partners do have concerns about the release of certain individuals but they also understand the significance of the peace process and the cost of the peace process the cost of peace is not just on Afghans shoulders it's also a kind of cost that we need to talk about it internationally now without going into details of things that are being discussed and negotiated at the moment Afghanistan will always be mindful of our international partners interests and fully committed to our national interests and those of our partners now within that framework we will work with everyone to reach consensus so that at the end of the day everybody is comfortable and satisfied with the solution that comes out of this arduous and difficult process second, Dr. Abdullah is the chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation and we have a second body that reports to the High Council is the National Negotiating Team led by Minister Stanekzai so the negotiation will be directly led by Minister Stanekzai and his negotiating team reporting to the High Council and to the President of Afghanistan Thanks and then question from Jennifer Hansler of CNN who asks, are you concerned about a drawdown of U.S. troops ahead of the U.S. presidential election and the impact that could have on your leverage in the negotiations? We have been assured that the agreement between the Taliban and the United States is about a conditions-based drawdown of troops the conditions that matter to the United States and its security as well as to Afghanistan and the region we are confident that those conditions will be informing decisions made by our partners mind you also the fact that there is a bilateral security agreement between the United States and Afghanistan and a security agreement between Afghanistan and NATO and they have expressed their intentions and assured the government and people of Afghanistan that we are in this together and we are working together to achieve the end state for which the United States has expressed its support so now drawdown of troops and the types of methods of cooperation will be of course informed by the common goal that we are pursuing to achieve Thanks and then there is a related question from one of the audience members saying given the bipartisan appetite that was all demonstrated by Washington what do you see as the role of the U.S. moving forward? First of all if you look at the bilateral security agreement between Afghanistan and the United States which was signed in 2014 already then we talked about and the self-reliance of Afghanistan both in terms of security and our economic situation so Afghanistan has never had a kind of vision to have presence of foreign troops here permanently that has never been the issue however partnership and cooperation has always been a permanent feature of our policy Minister Akbar we lost you for about one minute in there if you could just go back about 30 seconds, 45 seconds of what you were saying you froze for a moment As I said that even early on in 2014 when we signed the bilateral security agreement with the United States the so far agreement with NATO we had a vision of self-reliance of Afghanistan in terms of security and our economic situation so we even then predicted the drawdown and full withdrawal of the foreign troops from Afghanistan as the capacity of the Afghan national security forces is built and they take more and more of the responsibility as they do now so it has always been part of the M-State that Afghanistan as an independent country will be responsible for its own security however when it comes to the global and international nature of terrorism and the threats that we face cooperation with the United States our NATO partners and regional partners has been a key feature of our foreign policy both security cooperation as well as development and economic cooperation so our vision is to work together through this peace process and achieve an M-State in which Afghanistan will not need the presence of foreign troops but Afghanistan will remain a key partner for security and economic growth of the region and by extension the international community the regional issues and one of the more complicated lines of course is the India-Pakistan conflict and one of our viewers has asked is peace of Pakistan possible without some form of agreement between Pakistan and India not to spread their rivalry to other regional proxy conflicts yes it is possible because both India and Pakistan are threatened by regional and international terrorist networks well India has been a victim for a very long time just like Afghanistan but we must also look at the cost of terrorism in Pakistan and the fact that terrorism has been a threat to the people and the state of Pakistan and if you look at the over 20 of regional and international terrorist networks there are many that are enemies of India and there are some that threaten Pakistan as well but of course the sad story is that all of them threaten Afghanistan now we as a friend of India but also a neighbour of Pakistan we are certainly explaining to them that cooperation is the key to win this battle bringing their other rivalries to Afghanistan whether it's India or Pakistan or other regional and global actors that have certain types of rivalries among them will not benefit anybody at the end of the day the war is certainly spreading and having spillover effects and affecting everybody remember 9-11 was planned from this region and carried out by terrorists that they act globally so it's important for all regional and global actors to understand that there's only one way to defeat terrorism and that is regional and global cooperation I want to stick in the region and ask questions about Central Asia one viewer asked you're expected to go on a trip to Uzbekistan soon what you hope to get out of that and along the same lines how can your northern neighbours in Central Asia especially Uzbekistan given its interest in facilitating peace talks contribute to peace more generally I lost you Dr Wilder on the second question what do we expect from Uzbekistan how can your northern neighbours especially Uzbekistan given its interest in facilitating peace talks the five Central Asian countries are extremely important for Afghanistan and we are important to them as well historically we share a civilization we've lived with each other we have depended on each other this is certainly what we have inherited from our shared history and our future is of course interdependent so we have very high stakes in terms of security and economic prosperity as well as our social and cultural ties but specifically with Uzbekistan and Central Asia we have a vision of peace security stability as well as regional economic development benefiting Afghanistan, Central Asia South Asia and all of our partners in the region Uzbekistan plays a critical role in this process tomorrow that we hopefully travelling there my specific goal will be number one to look at the road map in terms of our bilateral and multilateral cooperation with Uzbekistan and Central Asia but also to finalise some agreements on import of electricity regional connectivity and railway projects as well as increasing trade and transit between the two countries and reaching out to other regional partners and all of those are good reasons for Uzbekistan and the rest of Central Asia to help us with security as I said the combination of regional and international terrorists working closely with insurgency in Afghanistan have posed a serious threat to all of the five Central Asian countries as well as China Russia, India, Iran and Pakistan so it is extremely important for us to work closely with Central Asia and assure them that the peace in Afghanistan is going to serve their security needs as well. Thank you I wanted to go back to a press question from Pam Constable from the Washington Post to ask you said the end state of peace talks requires Afghanistan to remain a constitutional democracy the Taliban appeared to strongly oppose this idea is any middle ground possible? I hope so but whatever middle ground is there for us to achieve there is one key principle that nobody can deny and that is the will the free will of the Afghan people I mean the form of the government and the polity that we are going to have now or in a post-settlement situation will have to be determined by the will of the Afghan people. Now the question that I would have for the Taliban is are we going to respect the will of the Afghan people or not and that will have to be also the key question for our regional and international partners there will not be an acceptable end state without respect for the will of the Afghan people so we can certainly talk about the reforms of governance but the will of the Afghan people now is that they want a constitutional democracy they want an inclusive political system they want full respect for human rights, women's rights and the rights of our minorities these are key values that any modern civilization will have to rest on and Afghanistan cannot be an exception in terms of the view of this or that political group Afghanistan has already voted to be a modern civilization based on those values Thanks for running short of time because I know you have another commitment at the top of the hour but I think I'll try to squeeze in one last question we've had several questions from viewers about the idea of holding another conference like the one after the fall of the Taliban that led to the establishment of today's Islamic Republic of Afghanistan but this time including the Taliban what would you say about a proposal along these lines we're hoping that we should have the direct peace negotiation between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban started as soon as possible hopefully next week sometime now that negotiation should lead to a peace agreement to a political settlement it will be important then to have regional and international support for that agreement especially if that agreement is based on the kind of in-state that is acceptable to Afghan people the region and the international community now then there is a need for guaranteeing that agreement regionally and internationally and it's important for Afghanistan both the Islamic Republic and the Taliban to ensure international political and economic support for that peace agreement and now how to generate that support will be certainly issues to the United Nations Security Council and also to regional and international conferences those are the needs to achieve the goal and we will be actively pursuing the goal and looking at the most effective needs thank you and I'm going to have to apologize to all of those who did ask questions that we didn't have time to get to but a warm thanks to the minister for answering quite a wide range of questions from all of you and me and again safe travels to Uzbekistan and we wish you all the best as you work and your government works to try to move the peace process forward and that we do make headway toward achieving peace which Afghans are desperately need and deserve to have time to join us today thank you, thank you for inviting me and thank you for your wonderful work as USAIP