US embassy cable - 02KUWAIT5257

UNCLAS KUWAIT 005257 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR SA/FO - AMBASSADOR D. JOHNSON 
STATE ALSO FOR NEA 
STATE ALSO PASS USAID 
KABUL FOR AMBASSDOR TAYLOR 
TREASURY FOR UNDER SECRETARY TAYLOR AND OASIA 
MANILA FOR ADB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID, PREL, ECON, KU, AF 
SUBJECT: AFGHAN ASSISTANCE: KUWAIT PREPARED TO PARTICIPATE 
IN ROAD PROJECT 
 
REF: KUWAIT 5018 
 
1.(U) SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED -- PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. 
 
2.(SBU) On December 2, post received a copy of a fax message 
addressed to Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan Finance Minister, from 
Hisham Al-Waqayan, Deputy Director General for Operations and 
Disbursement at the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development 
(KFAED).  The letter was a response to Ghani's letter of 
November 17 urging Kuwait to consider funding the 
Kandahar-Spin Boldak road project to fulfill the country's 
commitment for project finance assistance.  A copy of the 
letter was apparently also sent to the Asian Development Bank 
headquarters in Manila. 
 
3.(SBU) The letter conveys to Ghani KFAED's "willingness, in 
principle, to consider contributing towards co-financing the 
above mentioned project."  The letter goes on to request 
Ghani to "instruct the concerned authorities to despatch all 
available economic, financial and technical feasibility 
studies relating to the said project as soon as possible." 
 
4.(SBU) Comment:  It appears that the visit of Ambassadors 
Taylor and Johnson (reftel) seems to have successfully walked 
Kuwait back from its plan to donate two used 747's to 
Afghanistan and shifted the government's focus onto the ring 
road project.  We are also pleased to have been able to 
facilitate communications between the Afghan and Kuwaiti 
governments, and are prepared to carry on that role as long 
as necessary.  End comment. 
RJONES