Obama, Ghani to discuss U.S.-Afghan relations

Washington - (CNN)Afghan President Ashraf Ghani arrived in Washington on Sunday for his first official visit to the United States since taking office in January.

The highly anticipated visit marks the latest chapter in an evolving U.S.-Afghan relationship -- one that seems to be warming even as the governments seek to bridge the gap on key security issues.

At the outset, U.S. officials say they hope to use the opportunity presented by this visit to build up the bilateral relationship, which has improved greatly since Ghani took over from his predecessor, former President Hamid Karzai.

"This is a different relationship than we had under President Karzai," Jeff Eggers, special assistant to the President for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told reporters in a conference call Friday. "It's clearly more cooperative and better."

In particular, Ghani's government has demonstrated a greater receptiveness to continued U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

In one of his first acts as president, Ghani signed a bilateral security agreement with the U.S., which allowed U.S. troops to remain in the country, and which Karzai had refused to sign.

In an appearance aired Sunday on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS," Ghani again praised the U.S. troops and warned of what might come of their absence.

"The result is that America has been secure, thank God," he said. "There's been no terrorist attack on mainland United States. We have been the front line. Meanwhile, what needs to be underlined is while tragedy brought us together, there are common interests that now can be articulated very clearly. The threats that we are facing on a daily basis, were they, God forbid, to overwhelm us, will threaten the world at large."  Read More at CNN

Obama, Ghani to discuss U.S.-Afghan relations - CNN

Afghan President Begins US Visit | The Diplomat