- By acting as a guarantor of the settlement, the United States does not intend
to imply in any respect recognition of the present regime in Kabul as the law-
ful Government of Afghanistan.
SOURCE: “Agreements on Afghanistan,” Historic Documents of 1988(Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1989),
259–266.DOCUMENT
Shevardnadze Statements on the
Afghanistan Peace Accord
APRIL14, 1988Representatives of the Republic of Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America today affixed
their signatures to agreements on a political settlement regarding Afghanistan.
The presence of the UN secretary general, Mr. Perez de Cuellar, and his personal
envoy, Mr. Diego Cordovez, at the ceremony reflected not only their role in attain-
ing the long-sought goal, but also the immense possibilities of the United Nations in
settling regional and other conflicts.
But even given all their tireless and purposeful peacemaking activities, today’s
result would have been impossible without the wisdom, good will and readiness for a
sensible compromise in the supreme interest of peace and security, which has been
demonstrated by the sides.
This result has been predetermined by my country’s policy of solving acute inter-
national problems exceptionally by political means, which has been proclaimed by
Mikhail Gorbachev, general secretary of the CPSU [Communist Party of the Soviet
Union] Central Committee.
The “Afghan knot” can be untied by dint of what is nowadays the most efficient
tool, which we call new political thinking.
Two dates have, in our view, been of utterly exceptional significance in the cal-
endar of the Geneva negotiations on Afghanistan. One was 8 February 1988, when
Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow and President Najibullah in Kabul issued statements
that led the talks to the level of practical solutions. The other was 7 April 1988, when
in Tashkent the leaders of the two friendly countries ushered in a new phase in the
relationship of friendship and good-neighborliness between the Soviet and Afghan peo-
ples, which dates back to dozens of years ago.
The pivotal idea of the new phase is every kind of support for the success of the
national reconciliation policy in every field essential to Afghanistan—be it aid with
creating satisfactory conditions for the return of refugees or help with economic reha-
bilitation and socioeconomic development in Afghanistan.
590 AFGHANISTAN