- By Ben Farmer
What is it?
Grand international conferences where the world meets to discuss how to help tackle Afghanistan’s many problems have been a regular feature of the past 13 years. The London Conference on Afghanistan is the latest in a long, long line and will focus on economic aid and development rather than troops and security.
This year’s conference is to check on progress since the last similar event in Tokyo two years ago. But it also comes at a jittery time for Afghanistan, as Nato combat troops pull out by the end of the year. London is the World's attempt to reassure Kabul that the aid money it desperately needs to keep running will not dry up when they troops leave.
Who is going?
David Cameron will host the conference with the newly elected Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani. John Kerry, US Secretary of State, will represent America. Nawaz Sharif, prime minister of Afghanistan’s most influential neighbour, Pakistan, will be another key attendee. Other international delegations are expected to be notably less high-level though, in a sign Afghanistan conferences may no longer be the draw they once were.
Afghan aid agencies, pressure groups and campaigners have attended their own shadow conference.
What will it decide?
This is not a pledging conference and officials say no more aid money is expected to be announced. Instead they will check on progress since Tokyo. The West will want to hear from Dr Ghani that he is serious about tackling corruption and reforming his government. He will want to hear they are not going to turn their backs on him and doom the country to the abandonment and civil war of the 1990s. Dr Ghani’s plans for how he aims to transform the country over the next decade may be vague though, because two months after he was finally appointed, he has still been unable to choose a cabinet.
What is it?
Grand international conferences where the world meets to discuss how to help tackle Afghanistan’s many problems have been a regular feature of the past 13 years. The London Conference on Afghanistan is the latest in a long, long line and will focus on economic aid and development rather than troops and security.
This year’s conference is to check on progress since the last similar event in Tokyo two years ago. But it also comes at a jittery time for Afghanistan, as Nato combat troops pull out by the end of the year. London is the World's attempt to reassure Kabul that the aid money it desperately needs to keep running will not dry up when they troops leave.
Who is going?
David Cameron will host the conference with the newly elected Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani. John Kerry, US Secretary of State, will represent America. Nawaz Sharif, prime minister of Afghanistan’s most influential neighbour, Pakistan, will be another key attendee. Other international delegations are expected to be notably less high-level though, in a sign Afghanistan conferences may no longer be the draw they once were.
Afghan aid agencies, pressure groups and campaigners have attended their own shadow conference.
What will it decide?
This is not a pledging conference and officials say no more aid money is expected to be announced. Instead they will check on progress since Tokyo. The West will want to hear from Dr Ghani that he is serious about tackling corruption and reforming his government. He will want to hear they are not going to turn their backs on him and doom the country to the abandonment and civil war of the 1990s. Dr Ghani’s plans for how he aims to transform the country over the next decade may be vague though, because two months after he was finally appointed, he has still been unable to choose a cabinet.
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