DM Monitoring
Washington: None of the questions about how the United States will support the Afghan government after September is likely to be answered when President Biden meets President Ashraf Ghani at the White House on Friday. But experts say the meeting is still an important signal that the United States will not abandon Afghanistan as troops complete their withdrawal over the next 80 days.
“That handshake at the White House between President Biden and President Ghani is so important,” said Lisa Curtis, a senior director for south and central Asia on the Trump administration’s National Security Council who is now director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for New American Security. “This is really a remarkable show of U.S. support for his government, which I believe is long overdue.” Biden announced in April that all American forces would leave Afghanistan by Sept. 11, though the military has already completed more than half of the withdrawal and is expected to be fully out much sooner.
The Taliban has failed to live up to its commitments set by the agreement for troops to withdraw, the country’s foreign minister told the United Nations Security Council this week. The group has maintained ties to terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, and civilian casualties are up 29 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to 2020. Deborah Lyons, the U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan, said at the same event that every problem from security to the economy to COVID-19 is either getting worse or remaining the same.
White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said Ghani’s visit to the White House will “highlight the enduring partnership between the United States and Afghanistan as the military drawdown continues….The United States will remain deeply engaged with the Government of Afghanistan to ensure the country never again becomes a safe haven for terrorist groups who pose a threat to the U.S. homeland.”
What that partnership looks like is still very much up in the air. Experts predict Ghani and Biden will talk about operational details of America’s continued aid to Afghanistan, but none were optimistic that any solutions would be reached or announced this week.
