Frontier India Current Affairs

Written on May 15, 2008 – 12:57 pm | by FICA |

Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard A. Boucher testimony before the U.S. House Of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee On South Asia shows that Afghanistan continues to be US priority in terms of fighting terrorism and accordingly just under half of US total assistance to South Asia is utilised for Afghanistan. US assistance in Pakistan is more focussed to Pakistani western frontier, including the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The US President’s Fiscal Year 2009 base budget request for South Asian states – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Maldives – is just over $2 billion dollars.

For Pakistani Tribal Areas alone, US has allocated, $750 million in Fiscal Year 2007, $60 million in the Fiscal Year 2008 and $150 million in the Fiscal Year 2009. This will continue or five years starting from 2007. For Pakistan, US 2009 base aid is $300 million and an additional $100 million in the 2009 to equip Pakistan’s security force modernization for counterinsurgency and counterterrorism capabilities, and provide equipment and training in support of the Security Development Plan for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and surrounding agencies.

For Afghanistan elections, US Fiscal Year 2008 supplemental and 2009 budget include $193 million for upcoming presidential, parliamentary, and provincial elections with an additional $113 million in 2009 supplemental bridge funding for municipal and district-level elections. Bangladesh will get $21 million as per 2009 budget.

US 2009 budget has additional $283 million for health and $222 million for education in South Asia. For Pakistan, US will allot $117 million for basic education and $47 million for higher education in the 2009.

For India, US aid includes $21 million for HIV/AIDS projects in 2009. Boucher admitted that the Indian allocation has come down. He said “I would note that our assistance request for India has decreased slightly in Fiscal Year 2009 in recognition of the continuing growth of the Indian economy and the ability of the government to fund more of these important programs.”