Message from the Ambassador

Dear visitor,

Welcome to the new face of Afghanistan in northern Europe: the new website of the Embassy of Afghanistan in Oslo! We are proud to be representing Afghanistan in Norway as well as, on a non-resident basis, in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.

My colleagues and I at the embassy will do what we can to ensure that our website does justice to Afghanistan today, a country of unique features and of unprecedented global importance. We aim to present a correct picture of the country, its current affairs and its deep interest to engage with the international community of which it is a proud member.

While Afghanistan’s diplomatic relations with many European capitals go back well beyond a century, our diplomatic ties with Scandinavia and the broader Nordic region are relatively new. Norway and other countries of this region, notably Sweden and Denmark, have been among our keenest and most generous supporters since 2002, for which the Afghan people are very grateful. We also recognize the help that these nations provided to Afghan refugees in Pakistan during 1980s and to our people within Afghanistan during the dark years of 1990s when our country was neglected by much of the international community.

Today the Nordic countries are playing a major role in the process of reconstruction and stabilization of Afghanistan. Taken together, the Nordic region is among Afghanistan’s top contributors in Europe. On a per capita basis, Norway is the largest donor to Afghanistan’s reconstruction at present. The Norwegian PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) in Meymanah, northwestern Afghanistan, also supported by the other Nordic countries, is playing a valuable role in the process of stability and reconstruction. Sweden, in addition to its generous development aid, is running a PRT in Mazar-i-Sharif, the main city in northern Afghanistan. Denmark is another major development donor to Afghanistan that is also playing an active role on the military front with a sizeable contingent serving in the southern Helmand Province. In their turn, Finland and Iceland are also making invaluable military and civilian contributions to our effort to stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan. The Nordic countries do not just bring critically needed resources to Afghanistan; their contributions are marked by their fundamental commitment to the strengthening of the new democratic government and its institutions. In this context, the Scandinavian countries have been among the first donors to the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund.

Dear visitor,

Afghanistan is an ancient country, with its most recent reinvention as the modern Afghanistan in 1747. Throughout our history, the occasional foreign invasions apart, we have been a country largely at peace within itself and with the outside world. The last thirty years has been a most volatile time in our history, as invasion, wars and regional interference brought vast destruction and misery to our country. However, we have an opportunity in Afghanistan today to leave the volatile past behind and emerge into a new, safer and brighter future.

Today, under the leadership of President Hamid Karzai and with help from over 60 countries of the world, the Afghan people are striving to build Afghanistan into a stable, prosperous and democratic country.

The contribution of the Nordic countries in this endeavor has been very prominent. It is our job here at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Oslo to encourage and support the continuation and further expansion of this contribution.

Thank you,

Ambassador Jawed Ludin