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BONN, Germany ? The United States and other nations vowed Monday to keep supporting Afghanistan after most foreign forces leave the country in 2014, as the nation faces an enduring Taliban-led insurgency and possible financial collapse.

“The United States is prepared to stand with the Afghan people for the long haul,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a global conference on Afghanistan’s future that was overshadowed by the absence of key regional player Pakistan.

The international community has “much to lose if the country again becomes a source of terrorism and instability,” she added.

The Bonn conference is focused on the transfer of security responsibilities from international forces to Afghan security forces during the next three years, long-term prospects for international aid and a possible political settlement with the Taliban.

Clinton stressed that in return for continued support the Afghans must live up to their commitments “on taking difficult decisions to embrace reform, lead in their own defense and strengthen an inclusive democracy rooted in the rule of law.”

About 100 countries and international organizations are represented among the 1,000 conference delegates, including some 60 foreign ministers. The attendees are hoping to agree on a set of mutual binding commitments under which Afghanistan would promise reforms and work toward goals such as good governance, with donors and international organizations pledging long-term assistance in return to ensure the country’s viability beyond 2014.

“Together we have spent blood and treasure in fighting terrorism,” Afghan President Hamid Karzai said. “Your continued solidarity, your commitment and support will be crucial so that we can consolidate our gains and continue to address the challenges that remain. We will need your steadfast support for at least another decade.”

Afghanistan is economically dependent on foreign aid and spending related to the huge military presence, currently totaling about 130,000 international troops. The country seeks assurance that donor nations will help fill the gap after most forces leave by 2015.

Although donor nations will not commit to specific figures at the one-day session Monday, they will sign up to the principle that economic and other advances in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban government in 2001 should be safeguarded with continued funding.

Afghanistan estimates it will need outside contributions of roughly $10 billion in 2015, or slightly less than half the country’s annual gross national product, mostly to pay for its security forces, then slated to number about 350,000.

Pakistan is a central player in regional efforts to improve trade and strengthen its weak economies. But its boycott has cast a pall over the session, because it points out that nation’s influence in Afghanistan and its ability to play the spoiler.

Pakistan is seen as instrumental to ending the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan because of its links to militant groups and its unwillingness, from the U.S. and NATO perspective, to drive insurgents from safe havens on its soil where they regroup and rearm.

Pakistan canceled its participation to protest last month’s NATO air assault, carried out from Afghan territory, that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The deaths fed the popular perspective in Pakistan that the U.S. and NATO, not the Taliban, are Pakistan’s principal enemies.

“No one is more interested than the United States in getting to the bottom of what happened in the border incident,” Clinton said with an edge in her voice. She has called the deaths tragic and pledged a thorough investigation, but Pakistan rebuffed her entreaties, as recently as Saturday, to reconsider and attend the conference.

Pakistan’s army accused NATO of a “deliberate act of aggression,” an assertion the Pentagon hotly denied. Pakistan has received billions in U.S. aid since 2001, largely in expectation of cooperation against militants.

Afghanistan’s western neighbor Iran joined the conference, and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the country stands ready to support Afghanistan and “welcomes the departure of the international military,” condemning the idea of any bases remaining after 2014.

The U.S. is currently seeking an agreement with the Afghan government establishing operating rules for the small number of remaining U.S. forces and other issues after international forces withdraw.

“Any international or regional peace initiative to restore peace and security in Afghanistan can only be successful if it discards the presence of foreign military forces,” Salehi said.

The U.S. had once hoped to use the Bonn gathering to announce news about the prospect for peace talks with the Taliban, making it a showcase for political reconciliation, but Afghan and U.S. outreach efforts have not borne fruit and no prominent Taliban representatives were attending the conference.

The reconciliation efforts suffered a major setback after the September assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was leading the Afghan government’s effort to broker peace with the insurgents.

The final declaration of the Bonn conference is expected to outline broad principles for political reconciliation with the Taliban, a project that several leading participants in the conference increasingly predict will outlast the NATO timeline for withdrawal in 2014.

“The road ahead will remain stony and difficult. It will require endurance and tenacity,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said.

Violence in Afghanistan is up sharply this year, and has spread to the once-peaceful north of the country. And widespread corruption is bedeviling attempts to create a viable Afghan government and institutions to take over when the U.S. and NATO leave.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111205/ap_on_re_eu/afghanistan_conference

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President Obama’s nine-day trip to Asia seeks to?reassure America?s Asian allies and partners that the US is committed to strengthening its economic and security ties to the region.

With America?s military presence in Iraq winding down by the end of the year yet with jobs dominating the domestic political picture, President Obama is redirecting his attention to the world?s rising economic power house ? Asia ? with a nine-day trip to the East.

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Beginning Saturday the president will host Asia-Pacific leaders in Hawaii ? where trade and economic development will be a key topic ? before heading to Australia and Indonesia.

The trip?s two-fold purpose: reassure America?s Asian allies and partners that the US is committed to strengthening its economic and security ties to the region, while messaging the American public (and voters) that America?s economic future depends in large part on its ties to the vibrant and fast-growing Asian economies.

Since taking office, Obama has repeated that this will be America?s ?Pacific century.? But until now the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, tumult in the Middle East, and even the threat of a financial meltdown in Europe have kept the administration?s attention to Asia sporadic.

But in a speech at the East-West Center in Honolulu Thursday, in the run-up to the weekend?s APEC summit, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton insisted that the administration is turning its attention to Asia in earnest.

Noting that world events have ?lined up in a way that helps make this possible, Secretary Clinton pointed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

?After a decade in which we invested immense resources in those two theaters,? she said, ?we have reached a pivot point.?

?We now can redirect some of those investments to opportunities and obligations elsewhere,? she added, ?And Asia stands out as a region where opportunities abound.?

But is Obama?s Asia focus coming a bit late and leaving the US playing a game of catch-up? Some US foreign policy experts who have visited the region recently say leaders there wonder if the US, despite Obama?s ?Asia century? rhetoric, is really intent on building up its Asia presence.

?All the countries in Asia can see China?s weight and influence growing in their everyday life, and their question to America is, ?What are you doing to respond to that, what is your strategy??? says James Lindsay, director of studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. ?They wonder if America is in fact in retreat.?

Clearly Clinton has heard some of these same rumblings coming out of Asia, because she addressed the doubters of America?s staying power head-on in her East-West Center speech.

?To those in Asia who wonder whether the United States is really here to stay, if we can make and keep credible strategic and economic commitments and back them up with action, the answer is: Yes, we can, and yes, we will.?

Saying the US will step up its involvement in Asia ?because we must,? she noted that ?in the 21st century, the world?s strategic and economic center of gravity will be the Asia-Pacific, from the Indian subcontinent to the Western shores of the Americas.?

Yet even as Clinton seems focused on convincing Asian countries ? including an ever-more-powerful China ? that the US is around to stay, the emphasis at the White House appeared to be on convincing Americans that Obama?s long sojourn in Asia and his focus on the region more broadly have at their core a strategy for maintaining and expanding US economic power, and for creating jobs.

?When the American people see the president traveling in the Asia-Pacific, they will see him advocating for US jobs and US businesses,? said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, in a briefing with reporters this week. ?He will be trying to open new markets, and he will be trying to achieve new export initiatives.?

Underscoring just how important Obama sees Asia in America?s economic prosperity, Mr. Rhodes noted that the president?s goal of doubling US exports by 2015 relies substantially on boosting US business to the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for over half of the world?s gross domestic product, and over 40 percent of world trade.

?Nearly all of the efforts we?re going to be making towards that export goal,? he said, ?take place in this part of the world.? ?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Bn73duGqDQE/Obama-seeks-to-reassure-Asia-of-US-interest

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FILE – In this May 1, 2008 file photo, Dorothy Rodham, the mother of Hillary Rodham Clinton applauds in Brownsburg, Ind. According to the Clinton family: Dorothy Rodham, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s mother, has died at 92, (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

FILE – In this May 1, 2008 file photo, Dorothy Rodham, the mother of Hillary Rodham Clinton applauds in Brownsburg, Ind. According to the Clinton family: Dorothy Rodham, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s mother, has died at 92, (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

FILE – In a July 14, 1992 file photo, Hillary Clinton, right, and her mother Dorothy Rodham are shown in their New York hotel room. Dorothy Rodham died shortly after midnight on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 in Washington, D.C. She was 92. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm, File)

FILE – In this April 22, 2008 file photo, former President Bill Clinton and his daughter, Chelsea, flank Dorothy Rodham, mother of then-Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., as she speaks at her Pennsylvania primary election night party in Philadelphia. According to the Clinton family: Dorothy Rodham, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s mother, has died at 92. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

FILE – In a Saturday, June 7, 2008 file photo, Dorothy Rodham, mother of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., wipes away a tear as her daughter addresses supporters at the National Building Museum in Washington, and suspends her campaign for president. Dorothy Rodham died shortly after midnight on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 in Washington, D.C. She was 92. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

FILE -In this May 1, 2008 file photo, then-Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., right, helps her mother, Dorothy Rodham, walk up to the stage during a campaign event in Brownsburg, Ind. According to the Clinton family: Dorothy Rodham, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s mother, has died at 92. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Dorothy Rodham, mother of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton’s mother-in-law, died Tuesday at age 92 after an illness.

The family said Rodham died shortly after midnight, surrounded by her family at a Washington hospital. The secretary of state had cancelled a planned trip to London and Istanbul to be at her mother’s side.

In a statement, the Clinton family hailed Rodham as a woman who “overcame abandonment and hardship as a young girl to become the remarkable woman she was ? a warm, generous and strong woman; an intellectual; a woman who told a great joke and always got the joke; an extraordinary friend and, most of all, a loving wife, mother and grandmother.”

President Barack Obama praised Rodham as a “remarkable person” who also was “strong, determined and gifted.”

“For her to have been able to live the life that she did and to see her daughter succeed at the pinnacle of public service in this country I’m sure was deeply satisfying to her,” Obama said after signing an executive order in the Oval Office. “My thoughts, Michelle’s thoughts, the entire White House’s thoughts go out to the entire Clinton family. I know that she will be remembered as somebody who helped make a difference in this country and this world.”

Dorothy Rodham was a witness to her daughter’s political victories and defeats. She avoided the spotlight and rarely gave interviews about herself or her daughter and son-in-law, the former president.

A notable exception was her daughter’s 2008 bid for the Democratic nomination for president. She appeared with her daughter in primary states, particularly at events focusing on women’s issues.

Clinton cited her mother in at least one ad during the campaign, saying that her mother had taught her to stand up for herself and to stand up for those who needed help.

As Clinton battled Barack Obama for the nomination in April 2008, Rodham joined her daughter and granddaughter at a campaign event at Haverford College, Pa. Then 88, Rodham didn’t speak at the event, but Hillary Clinton noted that her mother lived with her and “always has a lot of great ideas about what we need to be doing,” drawing chuckles from the audience.

When Clinton ended her campaign during a speech in June 2008 at Washington’s National Building Museum, her mother watched from off stage and wiped a tear as Clinton conceded the nomination to Obama. The following February, Rodham was on hand as her daughter was sworn in as Obama’s secretary of state.

Dorothy Howell Rodham was born in Chicago in 1919, the daughter of a city firefighter. In her autobiography, “Living History,” Hillary Clinton described her mother’s childhood as lonely and loveless.

The Howells shuttled Dorothy and her younger sister, Isabelle, among relatives and schools. She was 8 when her parents divorced in 1927 and she was sent with her sister to live with their paternal grandparents in Alhambra, Calif. Her grandmother could be cruel when not ignoring young Dorothy, Clinton wrote.

Rodham left her grandparents’ home at 14 when she found room and board as a mother’s helper to another family. After graduating from high school, she returned to Chicago on her mother’s promise of helping to pay for a college education if she lived with her and her new husband. After that promise was unfulfilled, Rodham supported herself with a job in an office.

“I’m still amazed at how my mother emerged from her lonely early life as such an affectionate and levelheaded woman,” Clinton wrote.

She met Hugh E. Rodham, a native of Scranton, Pa., who had found work in Chicago as a traveling salesman. They courted for several years before marrying in 1942. Besides their daughter, they raised two sons, Hugh and Tony.

Dorothy Rodham was a homemaker in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge but for years took a variety of college courses even though she never completed a degree. A Democrat, she was a counter to the conservative Republicanism of her husband, who became a successful businessman.

The Rodhams moved to Little Rock, Ark., in 1987, to be near their daughter and her husband, then the state’s governor, and their granddaughter, Chelsea. Dorothy Rodham’s husband died in 1993. A Washington Post profile in 2007 noted that she moved to Washington to live with her daughter’s family after Hillary Clinton’s election to the Senate in 2000.

In a debate during the 2008 campaign, Hillary Clinton called her mother her inspiration.

“I owe it to my mother, who never got a chance to go to college, who had a very difficult childhood, but who gave me a belief that I could do whatever I set my mind,” she said.

The Clinton family plans a private memorial service. The family statement said any donations should be made to George Washington Hospital, where Rodham “received excellent care and made terrific friends over many years”; or to the Heifer Project (http://www.heifer.org/ ), her Christmas gift of choice in 2010.

Or, the statement said “to a local organization that helps neglected and mistreated children, a blight Dorothy was determined to remedy until her last day because she knew too well the pain too many children suffer.”

___

Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-01-US-Obit-Rodham/id-f11afbcb7be8465aad7ad08102398b48

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