G-8 Foreign Ministers: Afghanistan Should Play Constructive Role

KYOTO, Japan — Foreign ministers from wealthy nations urged Afghanistan’s neighbors yesterday to play “a constructive role” in stabilizing the war-wracked nation and help it overcome the challenges of terrorism, insecurity, and drug production.A joint statement on Afghanistan, issued after a dinner opening a two-day meeting of ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations, also pledged a long-term commitment to support Kabul and urged the government to assume greater responsibility for its own security.The session in the western Japanese city of Kyoto focused on the central Asian nation yesterday, though international attention was riveted by North Korea’s long-awaited declaration of its nuclear weapons programs in Beijing.The G-8 conference, which ends Friday afternoon, was also to include discussions on Iran’s uranium enrichment program, the furor over Zimbabwe’s presidential run-off election, and the troubled Middle East peace process.Ministers from America, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Russia, and Canada yesterday focused on efforts to stabilize Afghanistan’s lawless frontier regions where terrorists and drug-traffickers operate with impunity.“We agreed to step up support for tribal groups in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas,” the Japanese foreign minister, Masahiko Komura, told reporters, saying the ministers also endorsed some 150 development projects in those areas worth about $4 billion.In a joint statement, the ministers urged countries bordering Afghanistan — including Pakistan and Iran — to also help Kabul.“We call on Afghanistan’s neighbors to play a constructive role for the stability of Afghanistan,” they said in a statement. “We particularly encourage Afghanistan and Pakistan to continue their cooperation in a constructive and mutually beneficial manner.”Japan has been eager to promote discussion of Afghanistan, where it has pledged $2 billion in aid. Fighting between Taliban-led insurgents and foreign and government forces has been surging across the south and east of the country, with nearly 2,000 people killed in insurgency-related violence so far in 2008.The ministers also urged Kabul to assume a greater role in securing its territory — which in many areas is under the control of warlords — and step up the battle against drug trafficking, particularly the cultivation of opium poppy.

G-8 Foreign Ministers: Afghanistan Should Play Constructive Role

G-8 Foreign Ministers: Afghanistan Should Play Constructive Role

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