We are today announcing a responsible adjustment to our spending in Afghanistan and immediately reducing assistance by $1 billion this year. We are prepared to reduce by another $1 billion in 2021, we will also initiate a review of all of our programs and projects to identify additional reductions.

Ashraf Ghani

We live in an interconnected world, and you cannot prevent people from leaving. What you need to do is to create opportunities. At the same time, people are also coming back.

Ashraf Ghani

leaving opportunity people

As the leader of a country, you are not free to enjoy the luxury of such feelings. The Afghan people want peace, which requires persistence. We are determined to defend our country, and the whole region and the entire world understands the justice of our cause and the principled way in which we have engaged in it.

Ashraf Ghani

persistence luxury country

Do not ever threaten an Afghan with violence. We will rise as one and we will face every threat the way we have taken on thousands of previous armies and conquerors.

Ashraf Ghani

army taken faces

When windows shatter through a bomb, we will repair it next week because we are Afghans. That's the spirit.

Ashraf Ghani

bombs spirit next-week

The job of an elected president is to overcome the past and change the playing field.

Ashraf Ghani

president jobs past

We could form a government of national unity fighting corruption. The ordinary Afghan is sick and tired of it, because it's she or he that pays the price.

Ashraf Ghani

pay-the-price tired fighting

Peace is a national issue, not only government's responsibility.

Ashraf Ghani

government responsibility peace

We will not let the price of peace be greater than the price of war, we will firmly safeguard the achievements of the past 13 years under former President Karzai.

Ashraf Ghani

war peace past

There won't be some overnight miracle cure. But the measures I take will be sustainable. Our goal is to cease food imports within four years. This will create a minimum of 2 million jobs in agriculture.

Ashraf Ghani

agriculture jobs years

It [terrorism] happened because intelligence, leadership and police failures made it possible.

Ashraf Ghani

terrorism police made

The most significant thing is public participation. That assures the Afghan public that our promises are not empty.

Ashraf Ghani

significant-things empty promise

Deadlines concentrate the mind. But deadlines should not be dogmas.

Ashraf Ghani

dogma should mind

Crisis for others is a source of despair. For me, it's an opportunity to bring reform. I owe this country a debt I cannot repay.

Ashraf Ghani

despair opportunity country

Economics taught in most of the elite universities are practically useless in my context. My country [Afghanistan] is dominated by drug economy and a mafia; textbook economics does not work in my context.

Ashraf Ghani

motivation inspiration country

Peace cannot come without the engagement of those who have been before. Gen. Dostum will make peace possible. He was engaged in conflict of the past. Forgiveness is an extremely important part of our culture. But, like Rwanda and South Africa, we need to fashion our own solution.

Ashraf Ghani

fashion important past

I'm not taking power. I'm catalyzing systemic change.

Ashraf Ghani

systemic-change

We [Afghanistan] are constantly dealing with situations in which we must ensure that provinces or major cities do not fall into enemy hands. People need to understand that we don't have an air force and the forces that we do have used to get air support from NATO, which is no longer available. Our pilots have done wonders, but they are stretched thin. We are dealing with resources that have been spread thin.

Ashraf Ghani

cities hands fall

What is common among all of these groups [Taliban, Islamic State etc.] is the intent to destroy. The majority of terrorists who come to Afghanistan are from China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or North Africa. They were expelled from their countries and pushed to ours - this is their battlefield - and all of them, be it the Taliban or others, are interlinked with the criminal economy.

Ashraf Ghani

uzbekistan islamic country

The national unity government is a necessity in this country and I am happy to serve it. We have negotiated for months to create a government, but Belgium also went for a year without one.

Ashraf Ghani

government country years

Terrorism attacks peoples' trust in the system of their state. There is protection, but only if there is collective action and collective understanding about how to really deal with this phenomenon.

Ashraf Ghani

protection understanding action