Afghanistan’s neighbors meet in Istanbul

Afghanistan’s neighbors have met in Turkey to seek a common ground on the Afghan war ahead of a major conference slated for Thursday in London.

Speaking at a press conference in Istanbul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai emphasized that for rebuilding a strong Afghan army financial support, training, equipment, as well as proper education for the Afghan military personnel are needed.

“We began actually from the scratch to rebuild Afghan army. The issues we face are better training, equipment, barracks, places to stay and proper education for the armed forces and the time which should take for the armed forces in order to begin to function as an institution,” President Karzai said.

Among those attending the summit were China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Iran’s First Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, Britain’s Foreign Minister David Miliband and Paul Jones, the deputy to the US special envoy Richard Holbrooke.

Officials from Tajikistan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, NATO and the European Union were also in Istanbul. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan did not attend.

Karzai is expected to give details of a program to “reach out” to Taliban militants as part of a political settlement. He met Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari in Istanbul on Monday.

The US ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry has publicly claimed that President Karzai is not an adequate strategic partner. He said that the US troop surge in Afghanistan will only deepen Afghanistan’s dependence on the US.