India will host a conference on Afghanistan to discuss ways to boost international private sector investment in the war-torn country later this month, a top US official has announced.

This is probably for the first time post 2001 that India is hosting an international conference, of any kind, on Afghanistan, where the country has quietly invested more than $2 billion.

Curiously enough the announcement in this regard has come not from India, but from Obama administration’s point man on South and Central Asia ahead of the June 13 Strategic Dialogue between India and the United States.

“India also hosts on June 28th a conference to examine ways to boost international private sector investment in Afghanistan,” the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Mr Robert Blake, said in his address to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a prestigious American think-tank.

This conference, Mr Blake said, will feature over 50 Afghan firms — with at least 10 of the companies owned by women — whose presence will spur direct business-to-business links between Afghan and international firms.

The New Delhi conference then will inform a July 8th Government summit in Tokyo that will develop strategies for Afghanistan’s economic development, the senior US official said.

Afghanistan, Mr Blake said, would be one of the key issues of discussion when the Secretary of State, Ms Hillary Clinton, holds talks with the Indian-delegation led by the External Affairs Minister, Mr S.M. Krishna, in Washington on June 13.

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