Bildt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, became the most senior official from a Western state to visit since Karzai’s re-election was announced last week, despite a UN-backed probe finding more than a quarter of Karzai’s votes were fake.Bildt said he aimed to kickstart an EU plan for aid to Afghanistan and get a better understanding of Afghan politics after the “difficult developments of the last few months.”
“My visit here is a follow-up on the action plan for Afghanistan which we have just now taken from the EU, and which we now need to start to implement step by step,” Bildt wrote on his blog.
He was to meet Karzai as well as opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah, who was second behind Karzai in the Aug. 20 poll but withdrew on Nov. 1 from a planned second round citing fraud concerns, paving the way for Karzai to be declared the winner.