U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Afghanistan Tuesday and signed a strategic partnership agreement with his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai. The unannounced visit was timed to mark the first anniversary of the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
The pact with Kabul covers security, economics and governance and spells out the U.S. relationship with Afghanistan beyond 2014, when most NATO forces are planning to conclude their combat role. It does not commit the United States to any specific troop presence but pledges American aid for Afghanistan for a decade after the withdrawal of the last U.S. soldiers.
The agreement also allows the U.S. to potentially keep a small number of troops in Afghanistan after the war ends for the continued training of Afghan forces and targeted operations against al-Qaida. The terror group is present in neighboring Pakistan but has only a nominal presence inside Afghanistan.
At a joint news conference with the Afghan president, Mr. Obama said “neither Americans nor Afghans asked for this war.” He said with the newly signed agreement, he is “confident the Afghan people will understand the U.S. will stand by them.”
Later, in remarks to U.S. troops at Bagram Air Base, Mr. Obama warned the soldiers of further hardship ahead in Afghanistan but told them “there is a light on the horizon” after more than a decade of war.”
He also plans to deliver a live, televised address to the American people about the Afghanistan war at 7:30 p.m. EDT , also from Bagram.
The president's speech will focus on the strategic partnership agreement and is likely to emphasize his plans to wind down the costly and unpopular Afghanistan war where nearly 3,000 U.S. and NATO soldiers have died since the country was invaded in 2001.
The address will come exactly one year after U.S. special forces, on his order, began the raid that led to the killing of bin Laden at his Pakistani safehouse.
Since then, ties between the United States and Afghanistan have frayed due to the burning of Muslim holy books at a U.S. base and the massacre of 17 civilians, including children, allegedly by an American soldier.
Mr. Obama is scheduled to be on the ground in Afghanistan for about seven hours.
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