Posts from ‘March, 2009’

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), described by some as Russia and China’s ‘alternative NATO’, is meeting in Moscow today with the issue of Afghanistan high on the agenda. Key players of next Tuesday’s Afghanistan Conference in The Hague will attend the Moscow meeting. These include UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, his NATO counterpart,  Jaap de Hoop [...]

If the subject wasn’t so serious, one might call it a speed-date.  Five hours, that is the amount of time the International Conference on Afghanistan can spend next Tuesday to sort out a wide array of issues related to “a comprehensive approach in a regional context”, to quote the motto of the meeting.  According to [...]

Zeer geachte voorzitter,
Op 31 maart 2009 vindt in Den Haag de ‘International Conference on Afghanistan; a Comprehensive Strategy in a Regional Context’ plaatsvinden.
Deze ministeriële conferentie, die een tachtigtal landen en tiental internationale organisaties bijeen brengt in Nederland en daarmee vrijwel de hele internationale gemeenschap die betrokken is en belang heeft bij de wederopbouw van Afghanistan, [...]

According to Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen, Iran has accepted the invitation to participate in the March 31st Conference on Afghanistan in the Dutch city of The Hague. According to the minister, it hasn’t been announced yet who will represent the country. But given the fact that most of the more than 70 countries invited [...]

In connection with the March 31st Afghanistan Conference in The Hague, the Dutch Defence ministry has issued a special issue of its Defensiekrant (Defence newspaper) - the first ever in English. In contains interviews with the ministers of Defence, Development, and Foreign Affairs; key leaders of the Dutch Armed Forces, and with Assadullah Hamdam, the [...]

“If there is one thing that makes my skin crawl it is the term ‘Dutch approach’. The Dutch are doing excellent work - but it is no different from what the British, Americans and Canadians are doing.”
(Major-General Mart de Kruif, ISAF commander in Southern Afghanistan, as quoted in NRC/Handelsblad)
Official website of the Conference
Radio Netherlands coverage [...]

Nederland werkt in Uruzgan volgens de ‘inktvlek-methode’. Een geografisch beperkt gebied veilig stellen, en van daaruit de veiligheidszone verder uitbreiden. Tarin Kowt en direkte omgeving vormen het hart van de ‘Nederlandse’ inktvlek. Maar een totale veiligheidsgarantie is dat niet. Dat bleek dinsdag wel, toen er vijf doden vielen bij een aanslag op de kleine moskee [...]

Tomorrow/Wednesday, Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen will brief the media about the upcoming International Conference on Afghanistan in The Hague. Short of him handing out the draft of the Final Declaration to the press, don’t expect too much of this. The draft has no doubt already been written, with some sentences or entire paragraphs between [...]

In a last-minute decision, the Dutch Foreign Ministry is allowing representatives of the Second Chamber of Dutch Parliament to attend the Conference on Afghanistan as observers. Each of the eleven parties represented in parliament can send one observer. Together with the United Nations and Afghanistan, the Netherlands is co-hosting the conference.
Official website of the Conference
Radio [...]

According to an article in The Guardian newspaper, Western powers plan to revive the post of Prime Minister of Afghanistan, effectively sidetracking President Hamid Karzai. The proposal is expected to be presented at the March 31st Afghanistan Conference in The Hague. Afghanistan hasn’t had a prime minister since 1996, when the Taliban took over power.  [...]