At the international conference being held at Paris on Thursday June 12, 2008, the President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai will seek $50 billion in aid for reconstructing his country that is devastated by war spanning three decades. This conference will see participation of around 85 countries and aid groups who will sit together to lend support to the Afghan President’s five-year plan to develop the country’s infrastructure, build its security forces, lessen poverty and bolster the rule of law.

   

This International Conference at Paris is a one-day programme, which will see presentations being made by the likes of Hamid Karzai, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. All of them will seek to lend support to the pledge of NATO made at its April summit in Bucharest that it will enhance military assistance. The NATO members including France had promised more troops to tackle the Taleban insurgency in Afghanistan.