Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 28 / corr Trend E.Ostapenko /
The London meeting will be a real discussion about how to accommodate the Taliban, how to negotiate with them and how to foster a coordinated regional effort for Afghanistan's stability, Kristian Berg Harpviken, a researcher on Afghanistan, said.
A top-level international conference on Afghanistan is to be held in London Jan. 28. Participants include U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The conference is expected to bring together representatives from 60 delegations and eight organizations.
Similar conference was held in London four years ago.
"Firstly, for the first time there will be a real discussion about how to accommodate the Taliban and how to negotiate with them. That is a discussion that is very much needed," Harpviken, Director of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO), told Trend over the phone.
The second important thing that will be discussed is how to address the relationship between Afghanistan and its neighbors, Harpviken said. In other words, how to foster a kind of coordinated regional effort for Afghanistan's stability.
The meeting will also go over the military strategy, Harpviken, a researcher on regional security in South-Eastern Asia, believes.
U.S. President Barack Obama announced Dec. 1, 2009 that he will send 30,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan. Thus, the number of the American contingent in Afghanistan will reach approximately 100,000. Obama thinks this will help in the fight with the Taliban and will make easier the transition of power to Afghan authorities in July, 2011.
The new military strategy includes not only the increase of troops, but also the change of strategy, which will be less focused on confrontation and more on protection of the civilian population. This approach is similar to U.N.'s "transition strategy," which also focuses on the social sector.
However, it's very difficult to apply this strategy and it is unlikely to succeed, the expert supposes.
"But the problem with the U.S. approach is that it is going to do very much on its own terms. The U.S. is not going to coordinate very closely with the government, the U.N. or other actors", he said.
Harpviken believes it is possible to implement development programs, but he does not think the development programs will bring about security in the way that the international community now is expecting. The development is important, and it is possible, but it won't stop the Taliban from attacking, he added.
"What is more important for the government is to tackles government corruption and mismanagement," he said.
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