U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement Meeting Held in Presidential Palace

The executive committee meeting of U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement led by President Ashraf Ghani was held in the Presidential Palace.

The committee meeting from the U.S. side was led by U.S. Ambassador in Kabul John R. Bass, and Resolute Support and U.S. Forces Afghanistan Commander General Nicholson.

In the session, Afghan and U.S. working group leads highlighted the completion of the Compact’s four matrices focusing on Governance, Economics, Peace and Reconciliation, and Security, noting that a total of more than 200 benchmarks have been established by the Government of Afghanistan, building on Afghanistan’s obligations under the 2012 U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement.

The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Afghanistan cannot support security forces without the cooperation and assistance of the United States.

 “We praise the continuation of U.S. cooperation and assistance including the convergence of border and public security forces,” said Dawlat Waziri, the spokesman of MoD.

However, analysts say the security and economic situations were not in interest of Afghanistan’s stability in the past three years.

“If ending war and providing security are in interest of the United States, these meetings will have results; otherwise, they will be useless as before,” said Habiba Danish, a member of parliament.

Under the U.S.-Afghanistan agreement, the government has adopted benchmarks tied to global standards promulgated by the World Bank and other leading governance institutions.

 The working groups also outlined plans to monitor Afghanistan’s progress on the Compact’s benchmarks, including the time frame for each working group’s next meeting.