Afghan President Received Australian Governor General at Presidential Palace

His Excellency President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani received His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd) at Presidential Palace in Kabul on 18^th of December 2019. Both sides discussed about peace, security, combating international terrorism and the strong and ever-growing Afghan – Australia relations. President Ghani talked about the Afghan Peace Process and his Government’s peace plan in an effort to end the four-decade long war and conflict in the country, which is the basic need of the Afghan people. 

President Ghani added that terrorism is still a threat for Afghanistan and its partners. The focus of the Afghan national security forces is to fight terrorism. He referred to the latest defeat of Daesh in the Eastern part of Afghanistan where the Afghan security forces were able to eliminate Daesh from the area. President Ghani thanked the Government and people of Australia for their generous and continued support in both security and development sectors contributing mainly in the areas of governance, women empowerment, agriculture, water resource management, food security and mining. 

Since 2001, Australia has been involved, through military presence and financial contribution with more than 1.4 billion Australian Dollars of security and humanitarian assistance, which has been instrumental for Afghanistan. 42 Australians in uniform have lost their lives during service in Afghanistan. currently, 323 Australian military personnel under the Resolute Support mission, train, advise and assist the Afghan national security forces. Australia, based on Warsaw commitments, provides $100 million to Afghan security forces and $ 80 million for the development sector in Afghanistan on annual basis. 

Governor General Hurley congratulated President Ghani and the people of Afghanistan for successfully holding the Presidential elections. Mr. Hurley added that Australia supports the peace process in Afghanistan and will continue to support the security and development sectors based on the priorities of Afghanistan.  Governor General Hurley expressed Australia’s willingness to expand its bilateral relations with Afghanistan and stated that Australia is ready to share its experiences in the areas of mining, education, agriculture and water resource management with Afghanistan.