10 May 2010

Karzai Visit to Washington Comes at Important Time, U.S. Says

President Karzai, shown with U.S. representative Richard Holbrooke, is leading a large Afghan delegation for talks with U.S. officials.

By Stephen Kaufman
Staff Writer

Washington — Afghan President Hamid Karzai leads a delegation of senior Afghan officials to the United States May 10–13 for what Obama administration officials describe as an opportunity to evaluate the broad strategic partnership between the two countries as they focus on shared security, governance and development goals.

Speaking to reporters May 7, U.S. Army Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, special assistant to the president for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Karzai’s visit comes midway between President Obama’s December 2009 announcement of his strategy for Afghanistan and its one-year review in December 2010.

Lute said it also comes ahead of Karzai’s consultative peace jirga in May and his hosting of an international conference in Kabul in July, where he is expected to deliver action plans on his November 2009 inauguration commitments, followed in September by Afghan parliamentary elections and a second round of the U.S.-Afghan strategic dialogue.

Karzai’s visit “takes place at a very important time,” Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said.

“This can be an important opportunity for the two sides to come together and to … take stock of where we are, take stock of what the next steps are, what additional steps might be taken, what additional support the international community can provide, and what additional steps the Afghans can take to implement their own plans as relates to improving governance and security in their country,” Rhodes said.

The Afghan delegation will include the ministers of foreign affairs, defense, interior, finance, education, agriculture, labor, and health. They will meet with U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, at the State Department on May 11, and with President Obama at the White House May 12.

The two presidents will have “more than three hours together, which itself is extraordinary,” Lute said. The large delegation of Afghan Cabinet officials will also allow for “break-out sessions and … bilateral sessions around security, around governance, and around development issues that will allow us to go into much more depth.” The four-day visit also allows them to engage with members of the U.S. Congress and analysts at policy institutes, he said.

Rhodes said Obama administration officials are also approaching the talks with an eye toward beginning the transition of security and governance from U.S. and other international forces in Afghanistan to Afghan authorities in July 2011.

OPERATION HAMKARI UNDER WAY IN KANDAHAR

Karzai’s visit comes as U.S. defense officials say they are expanding the Afghan and international effort to assert Afghan government control beyond Helmand province to Kandahar.

Army General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told the MSNBC television channel May 6 that “we have already long since commenced the operations in Kandahar” to expand security and establish local governance “that can be seen as legitimate in the eyes of the people.”

“This is not going to be an operation like Fallujah [in Iraq], where you start at one side of the city and fight your way to the other and clear it of insurgents. Rather, it’s going to be an expanding tide, if you will, a rising tide of security,” Petraeus said.

In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee May 5, U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant General John Paxton Jr., who is director of operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the effort in Kandahar is named Hamkari, which means “cooperation” in Dari, and was “planned and will be conducted with our Afghan partners in the lead.”

As with Operation Moshtarak, which has been conducted in Helmand province, the coalition is integrating military efforts to improve security with civilian projects that are focused on improving local governance, development and agriculture.

“The focus of Hamkari is on providing Kandahar with credible and effective governance that gives the population hope for the future. More effective government will deliver security, basic services, development and employment. If these ends are achieved, the people of Kandahar will reject the insurgency and support the government,” Paxton said.

“A more capable, representative and responsive government will be able to bring the economic development and rule of law that the area so badly needs,” he said.

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michelle Flournoy told the committee that Afghan and international civilian operations begin with an assessment for each district, asking “What do the people need and want? What do they view as important? What do they prioritize? What do they expect? And what will be most meaningful to them?”

The civilians are focusing on grass-roots efforts, with “a lot more building at the local, district, and moving … up to provincial level,” while “appreciating the importance of incorporating traditional societal structures” such as tribes and ethnic groups.

The attention to more local needs and appreciation for the demographics and cultural landscape in each district “is a really key emphasis in Afghanistan going forward,” Flournoy said.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)