Dr. Hamdullah Mohib, the Afghan ambassador in Washington, came to Georgia in early April with an optimistic message of further cooperation with the U.S., emphasizing the strengthening of people-to-people relationships and educational ties.
To counter the negative assessments of the conflicts among the government leaders, the continued security concerns, corruption, the gap between the rich and poor, the waves of emigrants and affiliated brain drain, and the withdrawal of NATO troops, he cited his government’s reform plan, which he helped draw up and which points the way for “a transformative decade.”
He officially assumed the post as Afghanistan’s ambassador to the U.S. on Sept. 17, 2015 after having served as deputy chief of staff to the Afghan president Ashram Ghani in a role that included leading the presidential negotiating team for several inter-government cooperation agreements and the formulation of Afghanistan’s national development “Realizing Self-Reliance” reform strategy.
During an interview at Emory University, he told Global Atlanta that the top objective of his trip was to underscore his nation’s appreciation for its relationship with the United States that extends back to 1943 when Afghanistan opened its embassy in Washington in the same facility where it is located today.
Only three days later, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Kabul in an effort to provide support for the country’s coalition government, his first visit to the Afghan capital since he helped to broker the coalition government in 2014 following a divisive election. A clear sign that Afghanistan still faces urgent security problems were the rockets that landed in Kabul not long after Mr. Kerry’s departure.
Dr. Mohib was in Atlanta at the invitation of Dr. Marion Creekmore, a career American diplomat from 1965-1993 who served as U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Republic of Maldives from 1989 to 1992.
As a distinguished visiting professor of history and political science at Emory, Dr. Creekmore is teaching a class on South Asian politics and wanted the ambassador to meet with students who are working on policy papers about the relations among Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
While the ambassador was focused on expanding educational ties and discussed the possibility of developing telecommunication links between Emory and educational institutions in his country, he pointed with pride at the country’s 135 public and private universities and higher education institutions, and at the development that more than 9 million students are enrolled in school, including 3.6 million girls, compared to less than a million boys and no girls during the Taliban era from 1996-2001.
Another startling advance, he said, is the number of women participating in the government, with four female cabinet members, three female ambassadors and two female governors.
Before participating in several Emory-related events and meetings, he visited Fort Benning in Columbus, Ga., to express his gratitude for the service of U.S. troops fighting the Taliban and groups the U.S. considers terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
The U.S. has slightly less than 10,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of NATO’s reduced mission, which may be further reduced to 5,500 by the end of the year, although the increased presence of Al-Qaeda fighters in the country is causing a re-evaluation of the troop drawdowns.
The ambassador stressed that in the past violence-filled 15 years, Afghans had been able to make significant advances in a variety of sectors. The national plan considers a “transformation decade” already underway and cites the progress made in advancing the rights of women and girls, eradicating the culture of corruption, advancing private sector improvement and business growth, strengthening democratic government on accountability, confronting drug cultivation and trafficking and strengthening ties with regional neighbors and international allies.
He evoked a time when a safe, secure, and prosperous Afghanistan would be regained and underscored the necessity of stability, peace, and prosperity as key to providing the foundation for a stable and prosperous region including not only Afghanistan but also Pakistan, India, the Central Asian states, and even Iran and Russia.
Afghanistan is at an important geographic crossroads because of its location overlapping both Central and South Asia. Its admission to the World Trade Organization is another positive development, he said, in its emergence as a commercial center in the region.
Reflective of his years as a university student in the United Kingdom, he referred to Afghanistan as a “roundabout” for the region, a historic role it played as a center for trade. He also cited the democratic traditions in his country where village councils continue to play an important role, especially in negotiations with the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist movement that waged an insurgency until 2001.
In addition to citing improved statistics for exports and infant mortality rates, new highways, and a variety of economic development projects such as the network of new dams being built by Indian companies and the mining interests of Chinese companies in its lithium and copper resources, he cited the $25 million investment by a Dubai-based Afghan businessman to open a Coca-Cola Co. plant in Kabul, which, he said, prompted PepsiCo. to build a plant nearby.
These developments showed a willingness to form partnerships, which the ambassador encouraged, adding that he would be meeting with members of Afghani diaspora communities in the U.S.. As a university student in the U.K., he founded the largest Afghan diaspora youth association in Europe, the Afghan Students Association of the U.K., as well as the Afghan Professionals Network (APN).
While he wasn’t certain the extent of the diaspora community in the Atlanta area, he said he estimated it to be around 200 or 300 families with whom he planned to meet that evening. The communities elsewhere have much larger numbers, he said, such as the 60,000 in the Washington and Maryland area, 150,000 in California and 60,000 in New York.
He called on them to serve as ambassadors on behalf of Afghanistan by encouraging the development of advocacy groups and sharing their capabilities through doctors’ and other professional and technical associations. “They don’t have to move back to Afghanistan to play a very important role,” he added.
He also said that he had a lot of faith in his country’s future because three-quarters of its 30.5 million population is under 35 years old, who want to live in peace and pursue their dreams, and cited his president’s comment last year to the U.S. Congress that “Ordinary has escaped us, but it’s what we desperately need.”
Dr. Mohib isn’t looking through rose-colored glasses. His country will continue to have to endure economic setbacks as more American and coalition troops and contractors depart. Its security forces also will have to deal in addition to the Taliban with Al-Qaeda and ISIS incursions.
But he reminded the students that its security forces are only 10 years old and are becoming more professional as time goes on. He also says that they have managed to regain territories that are occupied for relatively short periods. Yet the news agencies fail to report on the recapture of the territory while their losses are widely reported.
For another article about Ambassador Mohib’s visit to Emory written by Shannan Palma, PhD., communications manager in Emory’s Office of Strategy and Initiatives, click here.
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