The Giscard plan for Afghanistan

The solution [to the Afghanistan problem], in my view, is to convene a conference of all the countries accused or suspected, rightly or wrongly, of interfering in Afghanistan's internal affairs. First those that are obviously intervening, that is, the Soviet Union; those that are alleged to be intervening , such as Afghanistan's neighbors, Pakistan and India; and those alleged to be supporting them. Then the permanent members of the Security Council -- France, china, the United Kingdom, and the United States -- and at the same time the countries of the region. India has an obvious responsibility in that part of Asia. And, in a form yet to be defined, the Islamic community, which has followed the issue with special interest.

The conference would not be to determine Afghanistan's status -- that approach has been tried and has failed for all sorts of reasons -- but to end foreign intervention in that country with each state pledging to do so simultaneously and in a verifiable manner so as to permit the Afghans to restore their country to a nonaligned status.

There would be no reason for Afghanistan to participate since it would not be a negotiation with Afghanistan. It would be a conference on noninterference in Afghanistan on the part of all the countries which, I repeat, are accused rightly or wrongly, of interfering. The conference would result in pledges of noninterference. That is to say, the withdrawal of forces where there are forces, commitments not to send forces or deliver arms to Afghanistan, so that Afghanistan is able to make its own choice and affirm its position as a no naligned country.