UN General Assembly
2013

I bring to all warm greetings and the good wishes of the Afghan people. I have the honour to address the General Assembly in the last year of the current elected Government of Afghanistan. I therefore think that it is useful briefly to revisit the story of Afghanistan over the past 12 years, our historic successes, the achievements that have transformed Afghanistan and, yes, the challenges we have faced continuously during that time. I should then like to share with the Assembly the vision of the Afghan people and Government for the future of freedom, dignity, prosperity and democracy that we are striving to solidify in our country and, briefly, to address the critical importance of our relations and cooperation with countries in our region and with the broader community of nations. To better illustrate the journey that Afghanistan and its noble people have been on over the past 12 years, I should like to share two contrasting pictures of the reality of Afghanistan — in the year 2001, at the time of