ASHGABAT, January 15, 0:30 /ITAR-TASS/. The United States hopes that Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai will make a positive decision and the bilateral agreement on cooperation in the security area will be signed shortly, Nisha Desai Biswal, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, told a news conference in Ashgabat on Tuesday.
She headed the US delegation to the annual bilateral consultations that ended in the Turkmen capital on Tuesday. The situation in Afghanistan and the prospects for Afghanistan’s social and economic development were among the questions in the focus at the talks.
The Assistant Secretary of State said the signing of the bilateral agreement on security was in the interests of Afghanistan and the entire region. She said the agreement was supported in Afghanistan, specifically, by the Loya Jirga (the assembly of notable politicians, public and religious leaders and tribal chiefs).
The Assistant Secretary of State noted that although the bilateral agreement on security had not yet been signed and the ultimate decision on the presence of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan had not been made, the US was determined to continue the effort to ensure security and help speed up Afghanistan’s integration by diplomatic methods and economically.
Biswal believes Afghanistan has achieved vast progress in the recent years and the United States will continue exerting efforts so that the results should not be lost.