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The Minister of State for Trade and Development, Jan O’ Sullivan T.D., will represent Ireland at an international Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan to be held in Bonn in Germany on Monday 5 December.

The Conference will be hosted by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and chaired by Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan. Leaders from nearly 90 countries and 50 international organisations will be attending, including UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The Conference will be examining, in particular, civilian aspects of the transition process which is now under way and which is expected to be completed by the end of 2014.

The Minister of State will be making clear Ireland’s strong support for the efforts being made to assist the government of Afghanistan in the building of a more stable future for the country. The international community wishes to see a new political order in Afghanistan based on peace, democracy, human rights (especially women’s rights) and the rule of law.

Ireland has to date provided a total of almost €28million in humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. In addition, seven members of the Defence Forces are on secondment to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and six members of the Garda Síochána are serving with the EUPOL police training mission in Afghanistan.