Karzai urges Japanese firms to explore for Afghan minerals+

TOKYO, June 18 Kyodo -
Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged Japanese companies Friday to explore for
mineral resources in his country, following a U.S. geological survey that found
Afghanistan has untapped resources worth up to $3 trillion.
Karzai said his country will be ''an industrial hub of mineral resources'' and
Japan is ''welcome to participate in lithium exploration in Afghanistan'' as
Japanese companies have been developing lithium-ion batteries for electric
vehicles.
''Morally, Afghanistan should give access as a priority to those countries that
have helped Afghanistan massively in the past few years,'' Karzai told a
meeting at a Tokyo hotel organized by the Japan Institute of International
Affairs.
Kabul should reciprocate Tokyo's past assistance ''by giving Japan a priority
to come, explore and extract'' mineral resources in Afghanistan, Karzai said.
The president added he is set to talk with officials of Mitsubishi Corp., a
major Japanese trading house with metal business operations, about the matter
on Friday afternoon.
Japan has been Afghanistan's second-largest donor, after the United States,
with $2.35 billion given between September 2001 and April 2010 for projects
such as infrastructure construction, efforts to disarm and reintegrate former
Taliban fighters, and education and health services.
Last November, Japan unveiled a fresh five-year aid package, which includes
assistance for the Afghan government to pay about half the wages for all of the
country's 80,000 police officers as well as for vocational training for former
insurgents, and agricultural and rural development.
Karzai said Afghanistan should properly manage competition for interests in
mineral resources by introducing mechanisms to prevent corruption and
establishing an adequate system for resource management and distribution.
The president also said environmentally friendly mining technologies should be
employed. ''We should be patient. Rather than doing it quickly, we should do it
properly with adequate safeguards,'' he said.
Karzai said he hopes Japan will host a major international conference to
advance the Afghan peace process, which would follow up on a meeting scheduled
for July 20 in Kabul to discuss the reconstruction of the war-torn country.
Referring to a Japanese freelance journalist who went missing in northern
Afghanistan in late March, Karzai expressed hope that he will be released as
soon as possible.
He said the disappearance of Kosuke Tsuneoka is a ''big concern'' to the Afghan
government, which he said has been following the case closely.
''You may have good news to hear tomorrow. It will be good news, hopefully. But
we just don't talk about it to the media because bad people, if they hear,
would try to turn the issue around,'' Karzai said.
Negotiations are under way between the Taliban and the Afghan government on the
payment of several hundred thousand dollars in return for the release of the
40-year-old journalist, according to Afghan security officials.
In a related development, Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada met with his
Afghan counterpart Zalmai Rasool and requested that Kabul present concrete
plans for the country's reconstruction in the run-up to the July 20 meeting in
the Afghan capital, Okada said.
Rasool offered to study ways to provide easy-to-understand explanations to the
general public in Japan on the use of Japanese aid in Afghanistan and said he
hopes to frequently communicate with Okada, the minister said at a press
conference.
Okada told reporters he would like to attend the Kabul meeting if his schedule
permits.
The $5 billion aid package was introduced as an alternative measure to assist
Afghanistan, as Tokyo terminated in January its refueling mission in the Indian
Ocean to support U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in and around the
conflict-ravaged country.
==Kyodo
2010-06-18 23:53:34


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