Your Excellency President Mirziyoyev, Madam Mogherini, distinguished heads of delegations, ladies and gentlemen.

Thanks to all of the distinguished leaders from the international community who are here as we take the next steps forward in this peace process. Your leadership and your commitment is absolutely essential to achieving shared solutions to our shared problems.

While the shared threat of terrorism unites us, so do the shared opportunities availed through regional cooperation and connectivity.

Today, I will speak to both—our economic and political futures are mutually reinforcing components of a sustainable peace, security, stability and prosperity in our region.

Let me dwell on Connectivity.

This region—Asia or more accurately Euro-Asia —is experiencing one of those rare “open moments” of history. We have a chance to change the course of history in our favor. These moments are rare because oftentimes when they have occurred, leaders have overlooked their significance and haven’t utilized the opportunity.

What makes this moment particularly poignant is that one can visibly see the emergence of an Asian continental economy. Asia historically has been a sphere of connectivity, but more a concept than an integrated economy. Today it is the opportunity to become a continental economy it is in our ability to make it so other than ocean-oriented trade passages, Asia presents the greatest opportunity for in-land trading connectivity.

I call this the ‘gift of geography.’ Central Asia, including Afghanistan, and we are very proud now to be an inherent part of Central Asia, thanks to your efforts and other leaders of Central Asia, is the shortest inland way to get through and from anywhere east, north, south and west in Asia. Equally important, for millennia Afghanistan formed the gateway to the Indian subcontinent. The global energy situation of today’s world enhances the importance of this historical gift of geography: Central Asia is rich in the energy supply which South Asia is in need of, and Afghanistan is the bridge which connects these two areas.

In the words of Pakistan’s poet Allamah Iqbal, “Asia is a body of water and earth, of which the Afghan nation forms the heart.” Placed at the heart of Asia, Afghanistan naturally has the potential to be a connector, a realizing factor that allows our region to either grasp this moment of opportunity, or become a burned bridge, further dividing these two spheres of South and Central Asia. With 71% of our population being under 30, we, the Afghan people and the government, are determined to secure our future through cooperation. We are dedicated to overcoming the past and ask all our regional partners and neighbors to join us in a mutual quest for security and prosperity.

We have to make a choice today as to the direction to lead the region.

Luckily, our heritage gives us a guide for the vision of the future. There is a heritage that our region shares from the days of the Silk Road and before that, that makes it possible to think of renewal as a way forward.

We must create an agenda for owning our future. Will we become a prisoner of the past, or will we embrace the potential of the future? If we choose the latter, the outcomes will be a win-win situation for us all. But in order for us to get there, we need vision, leadership and management, something that President Mirzaziyoyev just offered. The vision is one where national interests can be accommodated for mutual benefit, where we create a set of regional rules for connectivity and collaboration, and where national, global and regional goals can be aligned.- Read More