Helps continue in 2020 Afghanistan Conference

Kabul: Much anticipated 2020 Afghanistan Conference is repleted with vows to provide assistance for developmental projects in Afghanistan. Two-day-long summit that co-organised by the Government of Afghanistan, Government of Finland and the United Nations commenced on Monday.

During the summit, External Affairs Minister of India called for an immediate and comprehensive cease fire to stop violence in the country- MEA spoke person Anurag Srivastava tweeted. Jaishankar reiterated that the peace process must be Afghan-led, Afghan -owned and Afghan -controlled, the tweet added.

Along that, India announced an agreement for building Shatoot Dam that would provide drinking water for 2 million peoples residing in Kabul city. India also launched fourth phase of High Impact Community Development Projects which is consisting of more than 100 projects at the expense $80 million.

Projects implemented by Indian government are spreading across all 34 provinces – the spoke person wrote on twitter. Earlier India had announced developmental projects of more than $3 billion.

European Union announced that they will spend € 1.2 billion in Afghanistan for the next four years. Along that, EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Joseph Borrel reiterated the need for an immediate cease fire and peace process in Afghanistan. Mean while, United Kingdom pledged up to £ 155 million.

According to the reports by World Bank, Afghan economy is expected to shrink by at least 5.5 % this year due to the COVID pandemic. The conference is taking place when peace talks are going on between the government and Taliban.

During the last Afghanistan conference held in Brussel in 2016, world leaders have expressed their commitment to spend $3.8 billion a year from 2017 to 2020 at the aggregate of $ 15.2 billion. 2012 Afghanistan Conference was held in Tokyo, Japan.