1. By ‘Tariq Basharat’ in London
IISA’s Blog Post
ASHRAF GHANI’S VISIT TO THE US:
REKINDLING RELATIONS?
[IISA’s resident researcher ‘Tariq Basharat’ provides analysis on the challenges ahead for the newly elected
Afghan President.]

2. Ashraf Ghani’s visit to the US:
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently
concluded a three-day visit to Washington D.C.
which included meeting with White House
officials and addressing Congress. It is difficult
to understate the importance of the trip
considering the precarious nature of the Afghan
government being existentially dependent
upon auspicious relations with the United
States of America. As a result, President Ghani
would have been seeking to improve diplomatic
relations between the two countries and a
continuance of aid from Washington D.C. to
Kabul. With the stakes so high, let us evaluate
how the Afghan President did.
The most striking result of the visit was
President Obama’s adjusting his previously set-
in-stone plan of US withdrawal from the war-
torn country. Instead of the original plan to
shrink the US forces present in Afghanistan by
half by the end of 2015, the roughly 10,000
American soldiers currently in the country will
be maintained throughout the end of this year.
This is noteworthy as the large American
contingent will have enough manpower to
establish themselves across four key bases:
Kabul, the capital, the air base of Bagram,
Kandahar in the south-west and Jalalabad in the
east, the last two locations being especially
significant as areas where the Taliban have an
active presence. The originally intended force of
5,000 would only enable the Americans to
maintain the first two bases.
President Obama’s decision will likely find
resistance amongst an American public which is
weary of losing their tax-dollars to bankroll an
institution in the Afghan government which has
an infrastructure that is crumbling under the
weight of its own avarice and corruption.
Nevertheless, President Ghani was well-aware
of the public sentiment in USA, demonstrating
this knowledge by offering “tribute to the
servicemen and women who paid the ultimate
sacrifice” in Afghanistan, going on to say “I
would also like to thank the American taxpayer
for his and her hard earned dollars that have
enabled us”.
Whilst President Obama still seems intent on
withdrawing all American forces from
Afghanistan before the end of 2016, the fact still
remains that many in the Capitol partially blame
the President for the astounding success of the
Islamic State because of his decision to
withdraw all US forces from Iraq in 2011. Not
wanting to make the same mistake in another

3. country plagued by Islamic militants, as well as
the fact that he has shown himself to be
amenable to changing circumstances, might
point to a move whereby President Obama
extends US forces’ presence in Afghanistan past
2016.
The worries surrounding the Islamic State’s
presence in Afghanistan have been confirmed
by the attack in Nangrahar province on the 18th
of April. In the aftermath of the attack, the
Taliban have condemned the attack and there
are reports that the two groups have
subsequently declared jihad upon each other.
President Ghani also walked away from the visit
with a promise that the US would pledge $800
million to “incentivise and measure”
developmental and fiscal reforms within
Afghanistan’s fledgling infrastructure. Such an
act of generosity from the United States would
certainly have been influenced by President
Ghani’s active approach, in comparison to his
predecessor, in tackling the inherent corruption
arresting the country’s development. This
desire to bring about transparency was
highlighted by the launch of an investigation
into the Kabul Bank fraud case in which close to
$1 billion were pilfered by officials, one of
whom was related to the ex-President, Hamid
Karzai.
Arguably the most substantial thing President
Ghani achieved was something less tangible
than troops or money. Rather it was the
renewal of Afghan-US relations which could
prove to be the most consequential effect of the
diplomatic visit. In order to truly appreciate this
statement, one has to remember the state of
Afghan-US relation during the time of Hamid
Karzai. Towards the end of his tenure as
President, Karzai became increasingly
embittered by the US role in Afghanistan, to the
extent where it caused serious, potentially-
debilitating damage to the relations between
the two nations. Nowhere was this more
evident than in his refusal to sign the Bilateral
Security Agreement in 2014. In another
instance, President Karzai accused the US of
invading Afghanistan because of greed. This is in
stark contrast with the incumbent Afghan
President’s attitude towards the patronage of
the USA, in which he emphasises about ‘the
sacrifices America has made in trying to secure
freedom for Afghans’. As such, it is not difficult
to see why officials in D.C. have taken a liking to
the new Afghan President. The president
However is likely to face multiple internal and
external challenges which may impact on US-
Afghan relations in the near future.

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