Ban to attend meeting on Afghan regional security (Roundup)

Mar 19, 2009, 20:48 GMT

New York - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will attend a conference in Moscow next week to discuss the growing regional security threat emerging from the conflict in Afghanistan, the United Nations said.

The meeting of the five nations belonging to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will take place March 27 to 'focus on the impact that the situation in Afghanistan is having on its neighbouring states,' the United Nations said. The SCO includes China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

'It will also examine ways for states to jointly tackle threats emanating from Afghanistan, including terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime,' it said.

In Washington, US State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Patrick Moon, an official on South and Central Asian affairs, will attend the meeting after receiving an invitation from the organization.

'It's an important one. We were invited,' Wood said.

The meeting comes as US President Barack Obama intensifies US focus on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and prepares to outline a revised strategy.

Ban will also attend a March 31 international conference on Afghanistan organized by the Dutch government in The Hague. The United States was among the countries who proposed the conference as the Obama administration seeks to rally greater international support for Afghanistan.

Despite the well known problems in Afghanistan, the UN special representative in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, told the UN Security Council that success stories in Kabul failed to get headlines, subdued by the waves of violence in the capital.

'After all the changes that have taken place over the last six months, the Afghan government is today better and more competent than ever before, and the level of provincial government is higher,' Eide said.

He said reform in and cleaning up of the police force has resulted in the curb against violence. He said progress was being made in fighting poppy cultivation and improving agricultural output.

'These represent potential successes in the ability of the international community to respond to demands in Afghanistan,' Eide said.

'If we succeed in those areas, we would be able to address corruption and the resources obtained by the insurgency,' Eide said.

Eide warned that violence during the summer months usually will peak and urged the international community not to relax its support of Kabul.

Eide said the upcoming conference at The Hague, which will not be a donor conference, should display a 'political manifestation of support of commitment.'

'The Hague conference is a test of political will,' he said. 'It is an occasion for us to push the doom and gloom aside, roll up sleeves and support the positive trends that we now see emerging in Afghanistan.'

Obama has already announced that an additional 17,000 US soldiers will arrive in Afghanistan this year. Wood said Thursday the State Department was looking at expanding its presence by adding dozens of more civil personnel to work on various projects, and it will also increase the number of diplomats working in the country.