Washington, March 23 (IANS/EFE) Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Monday thanked the US troops in Afghanistan for 14 years of “sacrifice”, which helped to end the Taliban’s control and the isolation it imposed on Afghanistan.
Ghani said during a ceremony at the Pentagon, which was attended by US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter and Secretary of State John Kerry that he had come to the US “to say thank you on behalf of a grateful nation to people in this building and the larger US community”.
Ghani, accompanied by his chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, said the US military created conditions for Afghanistan to prosper and leave behind its years of poverty, corruption, violence and lack of education.
As the Afghan president initiated at the Pentagon his first state visit to Washington, he thanked the US for “sacrificing continuously since September 11 to bring us freedom and hope”.
After meeting Kerry and Carter at the presidential vacation home of Camp David on Monday, Ghani will meet US President Barack Obama on Tuesday to discuss the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
The US military presence in Afghanistan was part of an international mission led by the US since late 2001 until the end of 2014, and the Obama administration originally planned for it to be reduced to a mere diplomatic contingent by the end of 2016.
However, withdrawal plans were modified soon after they were announced and there are currently 10,000 US troops deployed in the country providing training and support for the Afghan military.
By the later part of this year, the troop level should be reduced by half, to some 5,000, with a complete withdrawal by the end of 2016, but that could be delayed.
The Obama administration is now ready to renegotiate the withdrawal and Carter imself had said that he was open to adjustments to the original plan.
–IANS/EFE
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