KABUL — The U.S. designation Saturday of Afghanistan as its newest “major non-NATO ally” amounts to a political statement of support for the country’s long-term stability and solidifies close defense cooperation after American combat troops withdraw in 2014.
“We see this as a powerful commitment to Afghanistan’s future,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said at a news conference during a brief stop in the Afghan capital. “We are not even imagining abandoning Afghanistan,” she said in the grand courtyard of the presidential palace after talks with President Hamid Karzai.
The non-NATO ally declaration allows for streamlined defense cooperation, including expedited purchasing ability of American equipment and easier export control regulations. Afghanistan’s military, heavily dependent on American and foreign assistance, already enjoys many of these benefits. The non-NATO ally status guarantees it will continue to do so.
Afghanistan is the 15th country to receive the designation. Others include Australia, Egypt, Israel and Japan. Afghanistan’s neighbor Pakistan was the last nation to gain the status, in 2004.
Clinton insisted that progress was coming incrementally but consistently to Afghanistan after decades of conflict. “The security situation is more stable,” she said. Afghan forces “are improving their capacity.”
At the news conference, Karzai thanked the U.S. for its continued support.
Clinton repeated the tenets of America’s “fight, talk, build” strategy for Afghanistan: defeat extremists, win over Taliban militants, and others willing to renounce violence and help in the long reconstruction of Afghanistan.
Fighting still rages as Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces battle insurgents, mostly in the eastern part of the country. Casualties have fallen among foreign forces as the United States and other nations begin a gradual withdrawal. A total of 215 coalition soldiers were killed in the first six months of the year, compared with 271 in the same period last year.
Asked about the corruption that has plagued the Afghan government, Clinton said the U.S. was working hard with Afghan authorities to eliminate fraud, mismanagement and abuse.
“This is an issue the government and the people of Afghanistan want action on, and we want to ensure they are successful,” Clinton said.
Nations that once gave more generously to Afghanistan are now seeking guarantees that their taxpayer money will not be lost to corruption and mismanagement.
International donors say that many promises to crack down on corruption have not been carried out. Some highly placed Afghan officials have been investigated for corruption but seldom prosecuted, and some graft investigations have come close to the president himself.
On the major non-NATO ally designation, Clinton said Afghanistan would have access to U.S. defense supplies and training and cooperation.
“This is the kind of relationship that we think will be especially beneficial as we plan for the transition,” she said. “It will help the Afghan military expand its capacity and have a broader relationship with the United States.”
Designating Afghanistan as a major non-NATO ally was part of a Strategic Partnership Agreement signed by Presidents Barack Obama and Karzai in Kabul at the beginning of May.
On Wednesday, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, and the country’s foreign minister announced that the two countries had completed their internal processes to ratify the agreement, which has now gone into force.
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International donors pledging $16 billion in aid • TOKYO — International donors will pledge $16 billion in aid for Afghanistan over the next four years in hopes of stabilizing the country after most foreign combat troops return home, a U.S. diplomat said Sunday, but the money will come with conditions to ensure it doesn’t fall victim to corruption and mismanagement.
The announcement was expected later Sunday at a Tokyo conference attended by about 70 countries and organizations. The American official traveling with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke ahead of the event on condition of anonymity and said $4 billion per year would be promised from 2012 through 2015.
The support will come with conditions, with the donors’ meeting in Japan expected to establish a road map of accountability to ensure that Afghanistan does more to improve governance and finance management, and to safeguard the democratic process, rule of law and human rights — especially those of women.
Foreign aid in the decade since the U.S. invasion in 2001 has led to better education and health care, with nearly 8 million children, including 3 million girls, enrolled in schools. That’s 1 million children more than a decade ago, when girls were banned from school under the Taliban.
Improved health facilities have halved child mortality and expanded basic health services to nearly 60 percent of Afghanistan population of more than 25 million, compared with less than 10 percent in 2001. The Associated Press
