Comprehensive Approach: Afghanistan

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: My few comments at the top. First of all, we're in this to win. We're in this to win the fight. We're in this to win the peace. We're doing it with and for the Afghan people. Our commitments and the announcements that we made today make that clear, and I would say these were universally applauded by people who spoke.

The Secretary, in her talk to the NATO allies, said this is a challenge that we can and must face, and a victory that we can and must secure. That sense of determination, I think, came through in what everyone else said.

The allies welcomed, as I said, our new announcements and pledged support for a comprehensive approach. This was not a pledging conference, but I would say that virtually all the allies brought something to the table. We'll be working more on the military side of things as we head towards the Defense Ministers meeting in Seville.

The UN representative in Kabul, Tom Koenigs, said we need an active response to a challenging environment. A lot of people talked about 2007 in similar terms, everybody understanding that it's vital that we achieve our goals this year, that we head off the insurgency, put the Taliban back in the box, and bring the benefits of good government to the people of Afghanistan.

I think the conclusion of the meeting is that we are going to win, that everybody's going to contribute, and that we're going to work even harder on support for the Afghan government, support for the Afghan people, coordination of assistance with the Afghan government, and coordination of all the aspects of our effort -- military, governance and reconstruction.

I'll make one final point which those who work at NATO, our Ambassador pointed out to me, this is a historic first at NATO. I've been to a lot of very large meetings at NATO, but it's the first time we've had all the major actors and partners at the NATO table and everybody -- Japan, Australia, Albania, Croatia, the UN, the World Bank -- everybody who is involved in Afghanistan came together at the NATO table at the suggestion of the Secretary of State. We think that was a very important and useful effort. Very important and useful meeting.