Afghan President and Obama meet in high profile White House visit

Insight

The U.S. is slowing the pace of troop withdrawal from the country. President Barack Obama made the announcement at a joint press conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the White House. CCTV America’s White House Correspondent Jessica Stone filed this report from Washington.

Highlights:

  • U.S. President Barack Obama is slowing the withdrawal of more than 4,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
  • Instead of drawing down to 5,500 by the end of 2015, nearly twice as many troops will remain through December.
  • The president is also delaying his decision about when to leave a Kabul force behind until later this year.
  • Ashraf Ghani, the President of Afghanistan said “The 2,215 Americans that have died must not die in vain. They must leave behind a legacy of a stable Afghanistan.”

Nick Burns from Harvard on Ghani’s visit

For more on President Ghani’s visit and the state of Afghan-U.S. relations, CCTV spoke to Nick Burns. He is a former Undersecretary at the U.S. State Department.
He is currently a professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at Harvard University.


Panel discussion on Ghani’s visit

For more on President Ghani’s visit to the U.S. and what the future holds for U.S.-Afghan relations, CCTV America discussed with Tony Shaffer, a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, and Michael Kugelman, senior program associate for South and Southeast Asia from the Wilson Center.