KABUL - NATO Senior Civilian Representative Ambassador Simon Gass on Monday welcomed the commitments held out by last week's Heart of Asia conference in Kabul.
The participants agreed on confidence-building measures in areas such as infrastructure development, education, commercial links, disaster management, narcotics and terrorism.

At a news conference, the senior civilian representative's spokesman said a cooperative approach to the issues that affected all regional countries would help cope with the challenges effectively.

Domini Medley told reporters the Kabul Conference looked at how the region could cooperate to make improvements and next month's Tokyo Conference would explore ways of supporting Afghanistan economically.
He hailed the results of these meetings as concrete developments stemming from the Bonn Conference last December when the international community renewed its commitment to supporting Afghanistan in the transformation decade.

Afghan security forces were becoming more capable, confident and professional every day, he said, adding with the third group of provinces and areas entering transition, nearly 75 percent of the Afghan population would have security provided by their own forces.

In reply to a query, Medley said: "One of the positive aspects of the Istanbul Process which you have seen last week in the Heart of Asia conference in Kabul is the regional cooperation on security, the shared fight against extremism and counter-terrorism efforts.

"So, ISAF, with a strong partnership with Afghanistan, with Afghanistan's strong relationships with its neighbours - everyone needs to work and are showing that they are working towards continued regional security and stability. And as that continues, it can only be good for the future."

The Tokyo Conference would send a strong message of international economic support for Afghanistan's stability after 2014, he hoped, saying the meeting built on the security roadmap that was laid out at the Chicago Summit and on the regional networks of the conference in Kabul.

"Whilst committing financially to the Afghan security forces, in parallel, many countries have increased their development assistance to Afghanistan. You will see many countries making further commitments to this country after 2014."

Since NATO started bringing goods through the Northern route the Northern highways has been severely damaged – what will NATO do about it?
About the northern highways damaged by NATO supply vehicles, Medley acknowledged there was heavy traffic on the road. "It is at times of night to avoid disruption to the population. Obviously, to coordinate and do that traffic, there are projects in place to repair roads, repair bridges…" (Pajhwok)