Ambassador Haron Amin was born in Kabul, Afghanistan.  His family fled the homeland one year after the Soviet invasion of 1979 to settle in the United States. He returned to Afghanistan in 1988 to fight for his country's freedom under his mentor, Commander Massoud. In 1990, the Commander assigned him to represent Afghan interests before the U.S. Government. He returned to Afghanistan in 1995, worked again under Massoud while joining the Foreign Service as the Deputy Foreign Minister's chief of staff until the collapse of Kabul in September 1996. From January to August 1997, he helped facilitate the promotion of Prime Minister Ghafoorzai, and served as his chief of staff. He  worked in various capacities at the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations, and as part of a bigger effort to help prevent the Afghan UN seat from either vacancy or falling in the hands of the Taliban. In January 2002, immediately after the Taliban-Al Qaeda collapse, Mr. Amin was appointed Charge d'Affaires of the Afghan Embassy in Washington, DC. On 30 April 2004, he became the first Afghan Ambassador to Japan since the Communist regime in 1978.

Roundtable Topic

Ambassador Amin will be speaking on the reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. He will address the country’s achievements in recent years in the political, security, economic and social spheres and with regard to human rights. He will focus on the challenges and concerns facing Afghanistan today such as terrorism, illegal cultivation of opium poppies, and poverty. In addition, he will highlight priorities for the development process in Afghanistan, including Afghan ownership and leadership of the reconstruction processes, the just allocation of resources throughout the country and the need for the continued support of the international community for rehabilitation and reconstruction.