Good morning and welcome to everyone from so many different countries around the world to this London Conference, and a special welcome of course to President Karzai and to Secretary General Annan, but also to all the Ministers and distinguished guests here today.
Your presence here underlines the commitment of your countries, and indeed of the whole of the international community, to helping the Afghan people build the stable, and prosperous, and democratic future that they want. We all know the immense challenge that Afghanistan faces. The purpose of the Conference today is of course to sign the London Compact, which will pledge us to help Afghanistan in any way that we can for the future. My own country over the next three years is committed to some £500 million worth of help, but we are also not just committing financial assistance, but of course the forces. The armed forces of many countries around this table are represented in Afghanistan.
Later this year, as we assume the leadership of the NATO International Security Assistance Force, many of our troops will be there in even greater number in Afghanistan, and I would like to pay tribute to the work that all the forces do there and the immense courage and bravery that they show.
I would also, if I may right at the outset, pay tribute to the work that was done first by Japan, but also through the Bonn Process by Germany, to the work that has been done over the past few years in helping Afghanistan make the progress that it has. In addition I would like to thank the United Nations and the Secretary General and his colleagues for all the commitment and dedication that they have shown in helping this process.
Now today, as we know, Afghanistan faces immense challenges. But let us also remember the tremendous progress that has been made. I don't just mean progress in terms of its economy, where the living standards of the people have risen and the economy has grown, but I also mean the progress in terms of the liberty and freedom that people enjoy in Afghanistan, when for so long they were denied it. Some 8 million people voted in the Presidential election, almost 7 million in the Parliamentary elections, 40 per cent of those were women
There are millions of children back at school, many of them girls denied the chance to be educated during the period of the Taliban's rule. And what is important is to remember that progress when we face up to the scale of the challenge that we now face. Because what is happening in Afghanistan is important of course primarily for the Afghan people, but I believe it is important as well for the whole of the international community.
Let us be very clear about the scale of the challenge that Afghanistan faces. Of course there is the narcotics trade which is important to combat at every single level, which is why we support the national drugs strategy of the President, and why it is so important that we make sure that we continue to offer alternative livelihoods for those that may otherwise gain their livelihoods through the drugs trade. But most of all, Afghanistan faces the threat of terrorism, of those who want to wreck its progress, of those who want to turn the clock back, of those who want to say to the Afghan people who in their millions have voted for democratic freedom, you must not have it, instead you must return to the days of extremism and fanaticism.
And therefore I think when we gather today as an international community in order to pledge our support for Afghanistan, we do so of course to help Afghanistan and to help its people, but we do so also because the struggle of the Afghan people to have democracy and stability is representative of the struggle worldwide to ensure that people have the opportunity for democracy and freedom when that is what they choose to do.
All of us who have armed forces in this situation know that they face danger. The British troops that will go to Afghanistan face danger there, as they do now in Iraq. But why is it important that we stick with it and see the job through as an international community? It is important in order to demonstrate that where people stand up for terrorism and opt for democracy, we will be on their side, it is to demonstrate that in offering the prospect of a decent future to countries that want to become democracies, we offer not merely the prospect of stability, but enhance our own prospects for stability and against extremism on our own streets in our own countries.
Most of the countries round this table have experienced terrorism and extremism. Most of us know how repugnant that is to the majority of our populations, whatever their religion, Christian or Muslim. Most of us also know that when we suffer a challenge or a set-back, the answer is not to walk away, the answer is to redouble our efforts to succeed and make sure the decent people, the decent majority who want freedom and democracy, have the chance to have it.
So when we gather here today to sign the Compact, to pledge ourselves to support Afghanistan over the time to come, we do so in the interests of helping the Afghan people, and you Mr President, who embody in many ways the hopes and aspirations of the Afghan people, we do so of course to help you, but we should not forget how this began. It began with an attack, a terrorist attack, the worst terrorist attack this world has ever seen, on September 11. Now maybe the international community should have taken action long before, but that spurred us to take the action. That is why this is a struggle that of course primarily concerns the Afghan people, but it is also a struggle that concerns all of us, and it is why we are here today and it is why we are determined to see this through. It is why whatever your challenges we will be there with you, at your side, helping you. It is in your interest to do so, it is in our interest to do so, it is in the interest of the whole of the international community. This is a struggle for freedom, and for moderation, and for democracy and we are with you in it.