11 January 2011 VOA News U.S. Vice President Joe Biden says if the Afghan people want the United States to stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014, the U.S. is prepared to do so.
Mr. Biden's comments Tuesday came after he met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He said U.S. training and aid will continue after 2014, and both countries have the same goal, which he described as a "stable sovereign Afghanistan." Under an agreement reached last year, the U.S. is to begin withdrawing some troops this year, and hand over complete authority for security in Afghanistan to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.
Biden said plans to hand over control of security to Afghan forces are on track, and both sides agree on how to do so.
Biden is in Afghanistan on a surprise fact-finding mission to assess U.S. progress in Afghanistan. He said the United States does not intend to govern Afghanistan, nor to engage in so-called "nation-building," because the Afghan people are fully capable of those tasks.
During a joint appearance with Mr. Karzai, Biden said the U.S. has "largely arrested" the momentum of the Taliban insurgency, but that the situation is "fragile" and "reversible."
The vice president's trip to Kabul follows a visit by President Barack Obama in December. Bad weather last month grounded helicopter flights and prevented Mr. Obama from holding an expected meeting with President Karzai.
A senior White House official said Biden's visit comes at a "really pivotal point" as the U.S. military role in Afghanistan changes. On Monday the vice president met with General David Petraeus, the commander of international troops in Afghanistan, and the U.S. ambassador to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry.
President Obama says the United States will begin transferring security responsibilities to Afghanistan's national army this year, in a gradual transition that will be complete by 2014. Another 1,400 U.S. Marines were dispatched to Afghanistan last week on a 90-day deployment to bolster combat forces in southern Afghanistan, the heart of the Taliban insurgency.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
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