Cablegate: Afghan Assistance: Kuwait Prepared to Participate

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS KUWAIT 005257

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR SA/FO - AMBASSADOR D. JOHNSON
STATE ALSO FOR NEA
STATE ALSO PASS USAID
KABUL FOR AMBASSDOR TAYLOR
TREASURY FOR UNDER SECRETARY TAYLOR AND OASIA
MANILA FOR ADB

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID PREL ECON KU AF
SUBJECT: AFGHAN ASSISTANCE: KUWAIT PREPARED TO PARTICIPATE
IN ROAD PROJECT

REF: KUWAIT 5018

1.(U) SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED -- PROTECT ACCORDINGLY.

2.(SBU) On December 2, post received a copy of a fax message
addressed to Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan Finance Minister, from
Hisham Al-Waqayan, Deputy Director General for Operations and
Disbursement at the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development
(KFAED). The letter was a response to Ghani's letter of
November 17 urging Kuwait to consider funding the
Kandahar-Spin Boldak road project to fulfill the country's
commitment for project finance assistance. A copy of the
letter was apparently also sent to the Asian Development Bank
headquarters in Manila.

3.(SBU) The letter conveys to Ghani KFAED's "willingness, in
principle, to consider contributing towards co-financing the
above mentioned project." The letter goes on to request
Ghani to "instruct the concerned authorities to despatch all
available economic, financial and technical feasibility
studies relating to the said project as soon as possible."

4.(SBU) Comment: It appears that the visit of Ambassadors
Taylor and Johnson (reftel) seems to have successfully walked
Kuwait back from its plan to donate two used 747's to
Afghanistan and shifted the government's focus onto the ring
road project. We are also pleased to have been able to
facilitate communications between the Afghan and Kuwaiti
governments, and are prepared to carry on that role as long
as necessary. End comment.
RJONES

© Scoop Media