Joint Declaration in Bucharest by the Atlantic Treaty Association and Afghan Youth

Bucharest, April 4, 2008

In the framework of the NATO Bucharest Summit 2008, we the ATA and YATA community and the delegation of eight young Afghan participants in the Youth Atlanticist Summit Bucharest 2008 welcome the initiative of ATA to invite, for the first time, a group of youth from Afghanistan to participate in the youth summit.
We appreciate the value of this initiative as a very useful opportunity of mutual interaction between the Young Atlanticists and representatives of Afghan youth, and consider it an important first step in establishing a lasting link between the youth of Afghanistan and the ATA and YATA community.
The Young Atlanticists from the ATA and YATA community are pleased to have the delegation from Afghanistan join them in their activities at the Youth Atlanticist Summit in Bucharest, and appreciate the start made by these representatives towards a strong and mutually beneficial partnership between the Young Atlanticists and the youth of Afghanistan.
The ATA and YATA support the Afghan youth in their work to further strengthen civil society in their country by engaging youth and other segments of the society in support of security, sustainable peace and development.
ATA and YATA reaffirm their goal of promoting democratic values and invite the youth of Afghanistan to contribute to this process by informing the Afghan public and mobilising the Afghan civil society.

For their part, the Afghan youth delegation is thankful to ATA and YATA for inviting representatives of Afghan youth to the Youth Atlanticist Summit in Bucharest.
The Afghan delegates at the Summit are highly inspired by the knowledge, experience and enthusiasm of the Young Atlanticists during the Summit, and commit themselves to work jointly, and with other youth from different walks of life in Afghanistan, for the promotion of civil society's role in bringing about security, peace-building and
development in their country.
The Afghan youth representatives express their strong wish for the creation of an inclusive network of young Afghan men and women from across Afghanistan in order to facilitate the Afghan civil society's role in informing and enriching the various processes of security and development in Afghanistan.
Such a network would also enable the Afghan youth to maintain close interaction and networking with youth from the ATA and YATA community around the world. To this end, the Afghan youth requests the encouragement and support of ATA and YATA and the Young Atlanticists who gathered at the Bucharest Summit.

With regard to the wish by Afghan youth representatives to establish a national network connected to ATA, ATA and YATA reiterate their full support for any initiative in this framework as outlined in the ATA Mission Statement.