November 17, 2010
Foreign Minister Dr. Zalmai Rassoul Meets Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton
Foreign Minister Dr. Zalmai Rassoul held a bilateral meeting with Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton today at the Department of State in Washington DC as the Foreign Minister Rassoul and his counterpart discussed a number of key bilateral issues in preparation to the NATO Summit meetings of Heads of State and Government in Lisbon, Portugal, on November 19-20, 2010.
In the meeting, Foreign Minister Dr. Rassoul expressed to his counterpart the profound gratitude of the Government and people of Afghanistan, noting that the shared stabilization and reconstruction achievements of the country would have been impossible without the continued support of the United States. In their joint media appearance, Secretary Clinton welcomed the Foreign Minister and members of his delegation to the Department of State. “I very much appreciate the constructive and useful relationship that we have developed personally, and more importantly, the strong partnership between our two countries,” the Secretary noted.
The two sides emphasized on the importance of the Lisbon Summit in further strengthening the NATO-Afghanistan partnership. Secretary Clinton applauded the joint effort of the Afghan and NATO officials in hammering out the NATO-Afghanistan Declaration, which will be signed in Lisbon later this week.
On the issue of transition and training of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), Foreign Minister Dr. Rassoul noted that the ANSF had increasingly demonstrated preparedness to take over the security responsibility, while calling upon the United States and Afghanistan’s other nation-partners to bolster efforts to train and equip the Afghan forces so they gradually achieve self-reliance to defend Afghanistan.
Secretary Clinton welcomed the recent successful military operations of the NATO and Afghan forces, and stressed that increased coordination of such operations further helps stabilize Afghanistan. She added that the United States fully supports Afghanistan’s peace efforts, while emphasizing the need for consolidation of Afghans’ democratic achievements, with the assistance of the United States.
During his short visit, Foreign Minister Dr. Rassoul has also met with Senators Carl Levin, Joe Lieberman, and John McCain, as well as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michelle Flournoy, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen, and Ambassador at Large for Women’s Affairs Melanne Verveer.
In this visit, Foreign Minister Dr. Rassoul was accompanied by Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, Eklil Hakimi, Director of General of Americas Dept. Mr. Nasir Andisha and the Spokesperson Mr. Zahir Faqiri.
###
MEDIA INQUIRIES:
MEDIA INQUIRIES:
Abduljalil Ghafoory
(202) 292 4285