Germany and the Netherlands will provide 23.3 million euro during the next two years for reconstruction projects in Uruzgan and Kandahar provinces in southern Afghanistan. The funds are earmarked for the development of a civilian airport in remote Uruzgan province, as well as for the development of vocational schools in the cities of Kandahar and Tarin Kowt (Uruzgan province). The Netherlands is thus Germany's most important cooperation partner to date in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

This Wednesday (22 July), Gernot Erler, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, and Peter Paul van Wulfften Palthe, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, will sign an agreement on wide-ranging cooperation in southern Afghanistan in the presence of the Afghan Ambassador, Prof. Maliha Zulfacar.