AFGHANISTAN: DUTCH PLANS FOR BERLIN CONFERENCE

UNCLAS THE HAGUE 000562 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SA/AR FOR P.HASLACH AND N.KROMASH EUR/UBI FOR S.HOLLIDAY EB/IFD/ODF E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AF EAID NL PGOV PREL SUBJECT: AFGHANISTAN: DUTCH PLANS FOR BERLIN CONFERENCE REF: A. STATE 47946 ¶B. THE HAGUE 02801 ¶C. THE HAGUE 02399 ¶1. (U) EconOff delivered ref A demarche to Martin Koper, Director of the MFA's Peacebuilding and Good Governance Division, and Wouter Biesterbos, Afghan Desk Officer. ¶2. (SBU) At this time, the Dutch have no plans to announce new pledges for Afghanistan at the March 31 donors conference in Berlin. They expect to adhere to their multi-year pledge schedule they announced last fall: EUR 17.5 million in 2004, EUR 15 million in 2005, EUR 15 million in 2006 (all to the ARTF). The Netherlands will be represented at the Berlin conference by Minister for Development Cooperation Agnes Van Ardenne, MFA South Asia Director Wilfred Mohr, and (likely) Special Coordinator for Afghanistan Ronald Mollinger. ¶3. (SBU) Koper and Biesterbos noted, unofficially, that if the MFA has extra money at the end of the year, Afghanistan will be one of the best candidate countries to receive it. The MFA is also consulting with its embassy in Kabul on what sectors it might want to target in the event the MFA decides to spend some of the Ministry's "Stability Fund" money in Afghanistan. Whereas the traditional development money is over-committed, the fund, which came online in 2004, has about EUR 20 million still available/unearmarked for 2004. The Dutch Embassy in Kabul has suggested the following sectors: demining, demobilization, border security, and anti-drug programs (the latter two sectors fall just outside the Stability Fund guidelines but are still under review). Comment: No decisions have been made on what Afghanistan might receive from the Fund, and it is worth noting that the Dutch have significant competing peacebuilding objectives in Africa as well. End Comment. SOBEL