PAK-AFGHAN STRENTHENING RELATIONS
ALI SUKHANVER
In a move intended to mend shattering and tattering ties with the Unites States, the newly-elected Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and US Ambassador James Cunningham, signed the Bilateral Security Agreement known as ‘BSA’ this year on 30th September at the presidential palace in Kabul. The deal allows the US to leave a small contingent of troops in the country beyond this year, when a NATO-led combat mission ends. As a result of this agreement troops from Germany, Italy and other NATO members will join a force of some 9,800 US soldiers, bringing numbers up to about 12,500. The US authorities had been asking Mr. Hamid Karzai to sign the same type of agreement in the last days of his tenure as the President of Afghanistan but he refused to do so by saying that the US had become a cause of conflict in Afghanistan, rather than a provider of stability.