BRUSSELS: World powers meet in Brussels Wednesday to pledge billions of dollars for Afghanistan until 2020, as fresh Taliban violence underscores the challenges 15 years after the US toppled the Islamist movement. The United States and the 28-nation EU currently each provide about a third of all international aid to Afghanistan, with Japan the next largest donor. It also comes two years after the London Conference on Afghanistan at which then newly-elected president Ghani vowed to build a more self-reliant country. EU officials denied reports that aid pledges would depend on Kabul accepting the return of 80,000 asylum-seekers deported from EU countries. But a key issue in Brussels will be countering the huge waste of international aid funds that have poured into Afghanistan since 2001.

Source: New Strait Times October 05, 2016 03:11 UTC