US failed in fight against terrorism: Ex-Afghan leader

Afghanistan’s former president criticized the U.S. for its failure in fight against terrorism in his country.

“America’s stated objective of defeating terrorism did not happen. It faltered. The consequences of that failure are tragic for the Afghan people,” Hamid Karzai told the TRT World Forum in Istanbul.

He made his remarks Wednesday in a session titled “Disrupting the Established Order: Rise of the Global South”.

Anadolu Agency is the global communication partner of the forum.

“Massive human loss, 17 years on, every day we have people killed, just yesterday we had 26 people killed in Eastern Afghanistan in an election rally,” Karzai was quoted in a TRT World statement.

“In consequence, as well as the massive loss of life daily, we have the rise of terrorist and extremist groups. Now as well as Al Qaeda we have Daesh in Afghanistan which is turning out to be a menace for the region,” he said.

Following the Karzai’s speech, Haiyan Wang, Managing Partner of the China-India Institute, spoke in a public session, “Disrupting the Established Order: The Rise of the Global South”

“We must bear in mind that China is not yet a superpower and will not be for quite some time to come,” Wang said.

“If you look at the military power, China’s military spending is one-fifth of that of the U.S. China has only one small overseas base and that is dual-use,” she added.

On Wednesday, the fourth and final session of the forum discussed “The Leadership of Women in a World of Conflict”.

Monique Villa, CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, referred to a World Bank study, which revealed women have equal rights to men only in 22 countries out of 189 surveyed.

“If we are to progress as a human race, we cannot exclude half the population: women,” the statement quoted Villa as saying.

The two-day TRT World Forum, themed "Envisioning Peace and Security in a Fragmented World", brings together over 600 participants including the world’s leading opinion leaders, policymakers, academics and businesspeople from around the world.