Iran will be invited to talks preparing for a spring meeting between the EU and Asian nations that will focus on Afghanistan, the bloc's external relations commissioner said here Wednesday. "We will invite Iran at the preparatory conference," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told reporters following an EU-Afghanistan summit in the Czech capital.
Tehran was absent at the last informal ministerial meeting among Afghanistan and its neighbours (Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, China and India), hosted by France in December. Officials had agreed then to hold a meeting of experts in Brussels to prepare the conference in Islamabad on cross-border co-operation and ways to reinforce stability in Afghanistan.
The new US administration of President Barack Obama also backs a regional approach to the Afghan question that includes neighbouring Iran, despite problems posed by Tehran's nuclear activities. European officials at Wednesday's meeting also pledged to increase its 400-member EUPOL police mission in Afghanistan so it can fight drug trafficking and corruption. "The fight against corruption is of the utmost importance for the Afghan government and for European tax payers," said Gunilla Carlsson, Sweden's minister for international co-operation.