Canberra - Keynote address By HE Wahidullah Waissi, Ambassador of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the Commonwealth of Australia On the occasion of the 98thAnniversary of Afghanistan’s Independence Day

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In the Name of Allah, the most Compassionate, the most Merciful

Good evening and welcome to the 98thAnniversary of Afghanistan’s Independence Day.

It’s really honored to see friends and supporters of Afghanistan under one roof.

I would like to especially thank and acknowledge presence of some of our distinguished guests:

Vice Admiral Ray GRIGGS, Vice Chief of Defence Force - representing Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin AC, Chief of the Defence Force

Ms Penny Williams PSM - Deputy Secretary of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Mr Phillip Stonehouse - Acting Chief of Protocol, DFAT

His Excellency Mr Abel GUTERRES, the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassador for TIMOR-L'ESTE, and Mrs Ana Mok GUTERRES

Excellencies, friends of Afghanistan and my fellow Afghans who travelled all the way from different cities of Australia and New Zealand,

Thank you for making your time to join us at this joyful day. 

Celebrating the 98th Anniversary of independence at the National Gallery of Australia lifts the spirit and ignites new ideas. 

The Gallery's superb collection, including the 12 artifacts/statues from Afghanistan land at the Asian section, invites the visitor to reflect not only upon the art and the artist but more so on the human spirit and its ability to create and to rise above the challenges and tragedies of daily life.

Thanks to the Director of the National Gallery of Australia, Mr. Gerard Vaughan, who has introduced those 12 artifacts and offered his support for greater mutual cultural activities in future. 

Dear friends,

We have just watched the journey of Afghans in Australia since 1860s. I am delighted to say that over 80 thousand Afghans live in Australia today. 

These are immense source of pride to us. They are ambassadors of Australia to Afghanistan and Afghanistan ambassadors to our culture and proud civilization of tolerance, engagement and future possibilities. 

But we also just watched a glance of 157 years of relationship between Australia and Afghanistan only in about 5 minutes. 

This relation was kept with hearts and cherished with souls at the cost of sacrifices for freedom throughout the history. 

Let me begin by thanking you – the men and women of the world community and my Australian friends. You have stood with us, as we stand with you, to end the senseless violence in Kabul, in Sar-e-Pul province, in Barcelona, in London, in Turku of Finland, in Iraq, in Syria, and many other targeted places in recent days.

The heinous attacks are just an attack on the peaceful citizens and insult the very concept of justice. They are also attack on the accepted norms, conventions, treaties, and cultures of global diplomacy. 

“The rebels say they are fighting a religious war, but Islam is a religion of peace, and it is Muslims – Afghan Muslims - innocent Muslim men, women, and children, who they are killing, by the thousand.  Narcotics, terror, extortion; our religion has nothing but contempt for these tools of modern day terrorism. They are terrorists, they are just criminals nothing more.”

Afghanistan stood bravely against the Soviet occupation and did not give up until its vicious empire collapsed and today stands at the grand battlefield of fight against international terrorism, extremism and violence in our land until we reach the victory. 

This is who we are as a collective people and what our country means to us.So, today the fight for freedom continues. 

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Our journey of full sovereignty started in 1919 led by a reformist and a visionary young leader, King Amanullah. For this, we fought to make our foreign policy independent of the British Empire and keep our independency moving. We began our path to modernization and self-reliance.

Our spirit of determination is reinforced by our young generation, their energy and thirst for peace and prosperity.

For the past 16 years, Afghanistan has worked and endured many sacrifices so it can move forward as a new democracy. 

Every achievement we have made — and there have been many — takes us farther along that journey: Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, a national constitution, human rights, women empowerment, rule of law, anti corruption and so much more. Our national priorities to end poverty and attain peace are advancing.

This shows that an Afghan spirit is one of resilience and determination. And we are re-covering.

Distinguished participants,

The April 2017 visit of President Ashraf Ghani from Australia and on the very month, the visit of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull put a new milestone in our enduring partnership.

Both countries are already cooperating in the defense, counter terrorism and military cooperation. The recent trips made it untraditional and defined new version of collaboration in the areas of water management, agriculture, mining and education.

Afghanistan has large reserves of minerals, coal, and strategic metals such as lithium, copper, and gold. 

We anticipate a major expansion of mining offers under a transparent and favorable investment regime that encouraging investment in state-of the art extractive technology and legal exploration.

Water is another major resource for Afghanistan. We are already investing in dams and irrigation infrastructure to raise agricultural productivity, and as technical designs are completed we will be accelerating investment in this sector that is key for both growth and poverty reduction. This could potentially increase our growth by a further 3% to 6% in near future. 

From a water-locked Australia to a land-locked Afghanistan, our partnership will affect positively many lives of people. Because our partnership is around values; values of democracies, values of rule of law, values of empowering of women and youth, and values of being useful participants in a global process. 

Our bonds that have been established in the 19th century, I am sure it will go in the picture 200 years from now, would be of two proud partners embracing each other in consolidating and deepening relationship.

Our cultural bond in modern day relationship is also distinguishable. As a part of our mutual cultural pride and contemporary people to people contacts, I was pleased to witness four book launches on Afghanistan only in August from the Australian and Afghan-Australian authors, whom we are privileged of having three of them today at this very reception. 

With this thought it is my hope and sincere wish that this Anniversary is a catalyst for new opportunities of connecting cultures, economies and indeed our communities. 

Long live our friendship! 

Thank you.