Biden meets Afghan leaders amid Taleban advances
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Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani is in Washington for talks as the last of US forces prepare to leave the country.
WASHINGTON • US President Joe Biden was set to meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his former political foe Abdullah Abdullah yesterday to discuss Washington's support for Kabul as the last US troops pack up after 20 years of war and government forces struggle to repel Taleban advances.
The Oval Office meeting may be as valuable to Mr Ghani for its symbolism as any new US help because it will be seen as affirming Mr Biden's support for the beleaguered Afghan leader as he confronts Taleban gains, bombings, a surge in Covid-19 cases and political infighting in Kabul.
"At a time when morale is incredibly shaky and things are going downhill, anything one can do to help shore up morale and shore up the government is worth doing," said former US ambassador to Kabul Ronald Neumann. "Inviting Ghani here is a pretty strong sign that we're backing him."
Mr Biden's embrace, however, comes only months after US officials were pressuring Mr Ghani to step aside for a transitional government under a draft political accord that they had floated in a failed gambit to break a stalemate in peace talks.
The meeting between Mr Biden and Mr Ghani and Mr Abdullah, chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, was expected to focus on "our ongoing commitment to the Afghan people" and security forces, said White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
The US leader has asked Congress to approve US$3.3 billion (S$4.4 billion) in security aid for Afghanistan next year and is sending three million doses of Covid-19 vaccines.
Mr Biden was expected to urge Mr Ghani and Mr Abdullah, foes in Afghanistan's two last presidential elections, "to be a united front" and reaffirm US support for a negotiated peace deal.
US officials have been clear that Mr Biden will not halt the US pullout - likely to be done by late next month or early August - and he is also unlikely to approve any American military support to Kabul to stop the Taleban's advances beyond advice, intelligence and aircraft maintenance.
Mr Ghani and Mr Abdullah's visit comes with the peace process stalled and violence raging as Afghan security forces fight to stem a Taleban spring offensive that threatens several provincial capitals and has triggered mobilisations of ethnic militias to reinforce government troops.
The crisis has fuelled grave concern that the Taleban could regain power - two decades after the US-led invasion ended its harsh version of Islamist rule - allowing a resurgence of Al-Qaeda.
Meanwhile, Mr Biden on Thursday said his administration would begin relocating thousands of Afghan interpreters, drivers and others who worked with US forces outside the country - possibly to Guam or somewhere else with close ties to the US - in an effort to keep them safe while they apply for entry to the United States.
"Those who helped us are not going to be left behind," Mr Biden told reporters at the White House.
More than 18,000 Afghans who have worked for the US during the war have been trapped in bureaucratic limbo after applying for special immigrant visas.
Those applicants have 53,000 family members, officials said.
REUTERS, NYTIMES
