Priority 4. Enhance border security, with facilitation of bilateral dialogue between Afghan and Pakistani authorities.

Improving security, governance and development prospects in Kandahar requires a more orderly and peaceful management of the border with Pakistan. Better relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan can yield more effective collaboration to promote legal trade, migration and shared development, and to block cross-border flows of insurgents, weapons and narcotics.

Canadian Objective for 2011: By 2011, we expect that Afghan institutions, in cooperation with Pakistan, will exercise stronger capacity to manage the border and foster economic development in the border area.

Notwithstanding some promising signs, relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan remained fragile through this quarter. Security in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, across the border from Kandahar, worsened, making it impossible for Canadian high commission staff in Pakistan to travel to the area. In the district of Swat, in northwestern Pakistan, the arrangement reached between insurgents and government authorities raised concerns that Swat might become an interior safe haven for Afghan and Pakistani Taliban forces destabilizing the region.

Even so, some progress was achieved in advancing the Canadian objective for 2011. Canadian officials facilitated a meeting of senior Afghan and Pakistani officials in Dubai, where the twodelegations adopted an action plan specifying steps and timelines for practical cooperation on mutual border concerns. They also agreed to set up joint working groups to improve cooperation on customs, migration, narcotics and law enforcement. At the request of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Canada has committed to continue facilitating this process.

To enhance border management in Kandahar, a major feasibility study for a modern border facility at Weish, in the district of Spin Boldak, reached completion; cost sharing for the construction project was under discussion with U.S. officials. Meanwhile, the RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency and Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade assessed the border-management training needs of Afghan officials. The commander of the Canadian Task Force in Afghanistan led a “border flag” meeting, bringing together Afghan and Pakistani military officers on the border.

Significant new deployments of U.S. forces in Afghanistan have already begun in Spin Boldak. Canada is working actively with the United States to align Canadian and U.S. border programming for best results.