US expects donors to pledge $3 billion a year for Afghanistan

An international conference is expected to pledge over $3 billion a year in development support for Afghanistan next week but funds will be dependent on reforms and countering corruption, a senior US official said on Thursday.

Richard Olson, US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told a Washington forum the US government would seek via Congress to maintain US assistance "at, or near" current levels for the period to 2020.



The European Union and Afghanistan will host a donor conference on October 4-5 in Brussels to seek backing for reforms to stabilize and develop the country. Some 70 states and 30 international organisations and agencies will attend.

The conference comes in the context of a greatly scaled-back US and international military presence in Afghanistan, and is aimed at helping the Kabul government establish an agenda for increased self-reliance.

Olson said he expected the Afghan government to announce "ambitious" medium-term plans to wean itself of donor support and stimulate economic growth. "We expect strong pledges of renewed support to be announced next week, collectively totaling over $3 billion a year in development support through 2020," he said.



Olson said US Secretary of State John Kerry would be "ready to indicate clearly American intentions to maintain a strong leadership role within the broad coalition of allies and partners engaged in Afghanistan."

Olson stressed the assistance was "not a blank check" and would be dependent on Afghan progress in carrying out reforms, including countering corruption. US senators warned this month that failure to address corruption could cause them to rethink the billions of dollars the United States spends in Afghanistan each year.

A September 14 report from the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction strongly criticising Washington for pouring billions of dollars into Afghanistan with so little oversight that it fueled corruption and undermined the US mission.



The United States spends $5 billion a year in Afghanistan, - about $4 billion for defense and national security and another $1 billion in civilian assistance, plus billions more for thousands of US troops and military contractors there.

Olson said the goal was to strengthen Afghan security forces and institutions to allow them to gradually defeat the Taliban insurgency. He said he hoped bipartisan consensus on this would be maintained under the next US administration after the November 8 US election. Earlier this month, India promised $1 billion in aid to Afghanistan during a visit to New Delhi by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.