Tokyo Afghanistan Reconstruction Conference

Q.  What can you tell us about the upcoming Afghan donors conference in Tokyo?

A.  A conference on Afghanistan reconstruction will be held in Tokyo on January 21-22, 2002.

This will be a ministerial-level meeting, attended by representatives of the Afghan Reconstruction Steering Group -- co-chaired by the U.S., the European Union, Japan and Saudi Arabia -- along with representatives of the Afghan interim authority.  At this time there is no final list of attendees.

It is expected that the preliminary needs assessment being conducted by the U.N. Development Programme, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank will have been completed and ready for discussion by then.  Therefore, we anticipate that identifying resources needed for Afghan reconstruction will be one important focus of the Tokyo meeting.