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Afghanistan Won`t Complain About Debt Cancellation

After 30 years of devastation, we are starting from nothing and any move such as this helps the reconstruction of Afghanistan, said Khaleeq Ahmed, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai. Afghanistan on Wednesday cheered at decisions of the United States, Russia and Germany to cancel the impoverished country`s debts, but the country likely will remain dependent on foreign aid as it recovers from decades of war.

Even with the loans forgiven, Afghanistan looks set to remain reliant on years of foreign aid. More than 90 percent of the government`s $4.75 billion budget in 2005 was financed by international donors, and Karzai has said his government will need propping up for about a decade. "The government and people of Afghanistan are working diligently to build a sustainable market economy despite many challenges," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday.

The U.S.S.R. had close ties with Afghanistan by virtue of location for years before they invaded the country in 1979, installing a pro-Moscow Communist government. The decade-long occupation ended with a withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989 under relentless pressure by U.S.-backed anti-communist mujahedeen rebels, many of whom helped found al-Qaeda. But Karzai`s government has not recognized the debt to Russia, which dates back to the Soviet era.