PARIS—France will host an informal meeting between Afghanistan and its neighbours before year's end in hopes of stabilising the violence-wracked country, the French foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Attacks on Afghan government forces and NATO troops supporting them have been on the upswing this year, as have been fighting in neighbouring Pakistan between government troops and insurgents who operate on both sides of the border.
Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier told a weekly news briefing that the meeting will "explore cooperation between Afghanistan and its immediate neighbours on several subjects, including political, economic, trade ... and also security".
It would focus on countries bordering Afghanistan, but others may also participate.
"We'll see if, in a broader way, other actors can be included and associated, at a different level and with different modalities—for example members of the P5 or other actors," he said, referring to the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council known as the P5.
Afghanistan borders on China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Leaders from NATO, Britain and the United States have said that military means alone are not enough to win the war in Afghanistan, where the 26-member NATO alliance has about 50,000 troops but where commanders say they need at least 12,000 more.
The land-locked country produced 93 percent of the world's opium in 2007, and the cross-border drug trade has helped fund the Taliban's insurgency.
An Afghan donor conference held in Paris in June highlighted the need for regional cooperation and called on Afghanistan's neighbours to support efforts to stabilise the country and secure its borders. Chevallier said the regional meeting would help further these objectives.
A French official said on condition of anonymity that the meeting would resemble a gathering of Lebanese political leaders held outside Paris last year.
Chevallier said the meeting will "probably be held at ministerial level," adding that it would take place "before the end of the French presidency" of the European Union in January.
