Afghanistan Conference to Be Held in Bonn

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, November 22, 2001

Afghanistan Conference to Be Held in Bonn

The meeting site for the U.N.-sponsored talks on the political future of Afghanistan has been decided, and the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it would be in Bonn, not Berlin.

The meeting site for the U.N.-sponsored talks on the political future of Afghanistan has been decided, and the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it would be in Bonn, not Berlin.

The ministry said the meeting would be held in the guesthouse at Petersberg, Bonn, from the coming Monday.

The meeting was once planned to be held in Berlin.

Issues including the building of a transition government in Afghanistan will be discussed at the meeting, which will bring together representatives from four different Afghan groups, according to the United Nations top envoy for Afghanistan Lakhadar Brahimi.

Local reports said that the Afghan Northern Alliance and the country's former king Mohammed Sahir Schah, who lives now in exile in Italy, have announced to send a delegation to the meeting respectively.

The Foreign Ministry said Germany would not be the organizer, but only offer technical support for the meeting, said ministry spokeswoman Sabine Sparwasser.

The meeting will be purely an internal Afghan meeting under the leadership of and hosted by the United Nations, she stressed.

She added that she is expecting 50 to 70 participants at the meeting next week.

The decision to hold the meeting in Germany came from the United Nations and the Afghan groups, the spokeswoman said. She added that Germany has had close ties with Afghanistan for many years and is a major aid donor there.

The Interior Ministry said the meeting would be held under highest security level. There have been no indications of terrorist attacks so far, said a ministry spokesman.

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