US designates Afghanistan as ‘major non-NATO ally’ – World News from Germany

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Reported today by Deutsche Welle. Here’s an excerpt:

The US has designated Afghanistan a ‘major non-NATO ally.’ The move came shortly after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived on an unannounced visit to Kabul, where she met with President Hamid Karzai.

The United States has designated Afghanistan as a “major non-NATO ally.” This status will make it easier for Afghanistan to purchase military hardware from the US.

Afghanistan is the 15th country, including Israel, Egypt, Japan and Australia, to which Washington has granted this status.

The announcement came shortly after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Kabul on an unannounced visit, where she met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai ahead of an international donors’ conference.

“We see this as a powerful commitment to Afghanistan’s future,” Clinton said at a joint news conference.

Both the Afghan president and the US secretary of state were to attend the donors’ conference, which is to be hosted by the Japanese foreign minister, Koichiro Gemba, in Tokyo.

“Considering that we are almost literally flying by, the secretary wanted to be able to stop in Kabul en route to Tokyo, in large part just to check signals before this last major, significant ministerial conference,” the AFP news agency quoted a US State Department official as saying.

Sunday’s conference is meant to drum up financial support for Kabul after the Western military alliance NATO completes its withdrawal of combat troops by the end of 2014.

Karzai has said that he hopes to receive international pledges for Afghanistan of $ 4 billion (3.25 billion euros) annually – the World Bank has estimated that Kabul will need slightly less. It’s still not clear how long the international aid is supposed to continue, as this issue remains the subject of ongoing negotiations.

pfd/ch (AFP, AP, Reuters)

Read the rest of the article here: US designates Afghanistan as ‘major non-NATO ally’ – Deutsche Welle: DW-WORLD.DE – Top Stories