In the defense budget proposal submitted by the Barack Obama administration to the United States Congress on Monday, an additional one billion USD in aid for Afghanistan in the year 2016 is recommended, but on the condition that reforms are brought to the Kabul government beforehand.
U.S. officials originally planned to spend about three billion USD in Afghanistan next year, but an additional one billion USD has been added to the budget proposal. The increase is not set in stone, and must first clear the legislature in Washington.
Meanwhile, officials at the Afghan Ministry of Finance (MoF) were quick to respond to news of the hike in aid and the conditionality terms attached to it. They have emphasized that the new government is committed to bringing all necessary reforms and fighting corruption.
Mustafa Mastoor, the Deputy Minister of Finance, told TOLOnews that President Ashraf Ghani would discuss the specifics of the reforms with U.S. leaders upon his upcoming visit to the United Stats.
"The government has started to bring reform and is making efforts to complete the pending tasks of the previous government," Mastoor said on Tuesday. "The new government has started reforms in economic areas, an example of which is addressing the Kabul Bank case," he added, referring to the infamous corruption case Ghani had re-prosecuted within his first months of office.
In the U.S. budget for the year 2016, a total of four trillion USD in spending has been proposed, 534 billion USD of which is allocated for defense. The Pentagon's defense budget marks a 35 billion USD increase compared to the year 2015.
Out of the total defense budget, a total of 51 billion USD has been allocated under the Overseas Contingency Operations Budget, which provides funds for the U.S. military activities in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
Analysts have stressed the importance of oversight and accountability when it comes to utilizing the aid. "The thing that is important is that the money must be managed properly and with transparency, in order to prevent the repeating of past mistakes," economic analyst Tamim Assey said.
Meanwhile, political analyst Mir Ahmad Joyenda says the additional funds should be put toward bolstering Afghanistan's independence. "This money must be allocated to projects that make Afghanistan more independent," he told TOLOnews.
From the Bon Agreement to the London conference of 2014, the international community has continued to poor financial support into Afghanistan, often with condition requirements that went unmet. With the threat of the Taliban still very much alive, but a new government in Kabul promising to start a new chapter in Afghanistan, it seems U.S. defense leaders have decided there is still reason to hope, and still reason to invest, in Afghanistan.
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