ID :
9959
Fri, 06/13/2008 - 11:04
Auther :

Afghan conference starts in Paris, Japan pledges $550 mil. in aid

Paris, June 13 Kyodo - An international ministerial conference on assistance to Afghanistan began
Thursday in Paris, with Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura pledging $550
million worth of grant aid and technical cooperation to the war-torn nation.

More than 80 countries and international organizations, including the Group of
Eight nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the
United States -- participated in the one-day conference.

The new aid will bring Japan's total pledged assistance to Afghanistan to about
$2 billion -- a move apparently aimed at taking the initiative on the Afghan
issue, which will be one of the major topics at the G-8 summit to be hosted by
Japan in the Lake Toya resort area of Hokkaido in July.

In the speech, Komura pledged that the Afghan issue will also be high on the
agenda of a G-8 foreign ministers meeting to be hosted in Kyoto from June 26.

He also stressed the importance of improving governance through a series of
elections, including the presidential election scheduled for 2009, and of
promoting anti-drug measures.

Komura asked Afghanistan to strengthen relations with neighboring Pakistan, the
officials said.

The conference, co-hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, is aimed at discussing how
to support Afghanistan's five-year reconstruction plan.==Kyodo

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