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Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani met a visiting US inter-ministerial delegation led by Zalmay Khalilzad, Washington's Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, here.
According to Ghani's Office, the two sides during the meeting on Sunday discussed several issues including expanding cooperation, and maintaining bilateral political, security, defense and economic relations, Xinhua news agency reported. Concerning the continuation of $3.3 billion in annual assistance for the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), the US delegation conveyed the White House message of supporting the ANDSF as well as supporting Afghanistan in the economic areas Besides Ghani, Khalilzad on Sunday also met the head of High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), Abdullah Abdullah, during which they discussing issues related to the Taliban and Afghanistan's national reconciliation efforts. Before Khalilzad had embarked on his trip to Kabul, the US State Department said that the "delegation will underscore enduring US support for Afghanistan's development and a political settlement that will end the war". The visit comes over a month after US President Joe Biden announced in April to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan by September 11. The announcement was followed by concerns about the political future of Afghanistan, TOLO News reported. Pentagon officials have said that one-quarter of the withdrawal has been completed. The US forces have handed some bases to Afghan forces, including the New Kabul Compound, known as NKC, in Kabul. Violence has however, remained high in Afghanistan, while the peace negotiations in Doha have had no progress following Biden's announcement. --IANS ksk/ ( 263 Words) 2021-06-07-10:14:03 (IANS)
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