Estonia to aid Afghan security and education with 780,000 euros
Estonia will gift the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) 500,000 euros, half of which will go to education, and a further 280,000 euros to the Afghanistan police force.
Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand said Afghanistan is one of Estonia's foreign aid priorities.
“We want to contribute to achieving security and stability in the region, which is especially important in the context of the current migrant crisis,” she said, adding that the aim is to get the nation on its feet.
Besides security, Estonia holds education to be key. “Besides support through the trust fund, we have a number of bilateral education projects with Afghanistan in the works, such as six lecturers from Kabul studying for their doctorate at Tallinn University,” Kaljurand said.
Support for Afghan police forces will go through UN's LOFTA (Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan) fund.
Managed by the World Bank, ARTF was set up in 2002 to support the government of Afghanistan. The fund deals with fields such as healthcare, education, agriculture, infrastructure and administration. Estonia paid the fund 500,000 euros last year and the year before.
Editor: J.M. Laats