Pentagon chief in Afghanistan
KABUL : Acting US defence secretary Patrick Shanahan said on Monday it was important for the Afghan government to be included in talks to end the country’s 17-year war, an involvement that the Taliban has so far rejected.
Shanahan, making his first trip to Afghanistan in his new role, met US troops and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. He said he had so far not received any direction to reduce the nearly 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan, but noted what he called strong US security interests in the region. Ghani’s government has been shut out of the peace talks between Taliban negotiators and US envoys, with the hardline Islamist movement branding it a US puppet. Kabul is concerned that a sharp drawdown of US forces could lead to chaos in the region.
“It is important that the Afghan government is involved in discussions regarding Afghanistan,” Shanahan told reporters travelling with him on the previously unannounced trip. “The Afghans have to decide what Afghanistan looks like in the future. It’s not about the US, it is about Afghanistan.”
Shanahan, who took over the job after Jim Mattis quit in December over policy differences with US President Donald Trump, said he could not make any guarantees because US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was leading the talks. “The US military has strong security interests in the region. (The) presence will evolve out of those discussions,” Shanahan said.
He said the aim of his trip was to get an understanding of the situation on the ground from commanders and then brief Trump on his findings. Shanahan’s meeting with Ghani covered a range of defence issues important to the bilateral relationship, Pentagon spokesman Commander Sean Robertson said.