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Questions Raised Over Ghani’s Failure To Meet Key Leaders

Questions have been raised in Afghanistan over why President Ashraf Ghani did not hold bilateral meetings with either NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg or with US President Donald Trump during last week’s NATO Heads of State and Government summit in Brussels.

Ghani was expected to hold talks with both Trump and Stoltenberg on the sidelines of the summit – but neither meetings transpired.

This came despite Trump having said during his speech in Brussels that he would like to meet with Ghani.

Ghani meanwhile said after the summit that the international community has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Afghanistan.

Over the past two decades, Afghanistan has been a focal point of politics in Washington and high level officials from Afghanistan and the United States have continuously discussed the need to jointly fight terrorism.

But to date, Ghani has only met with Trump once and that was during a visit to the US for a UN meeting in September last year. The Ghani-Trump meeting took place on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly meeting in New York and not at the White House.

Other heads of state have however met with Trump at the White House.

Currently, the US is heavily involved in Afghanistan and with close to 10,000 troops stationed in the country, it remains an active partner in the fight against terrorism.

As such, questions have been raised as to why neither Trump, Stoltenberg or even the UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May failed to hold bilateral meetings with Ghani last week.

Photographs taken at the NATO summit in Brussels show that Ghani met only a few heads of state of NATO member countries.

One video released by the UK’s Daily Mail shows that leaders of the National Unity Government (NUG) appeared to have been much closer to each other at the summit than what they usually are back home.

Some MPs have however said some foreign countries do not show much respect where Afghanistan is concerned.

“We have never had a powerful and stable government to bring the system and the people under one umbrella, in order to settle the problems of the people; because of this, the world does not deal with us with respect,” said Qudratullah Sahak, an MP.

“All these issues we face have been causing our international partners to ignore their relations with Afghanistan, especially with the political leaders and they even break their promises,” said MP Fakoor Behishti.

“Recently the US secretary of state also made a surprise trip to Kabul and expressed concerns and held talks with the leaders of the National Unity Government. I see some kind of discontent between National Unity Government, NATO and the US president,” said political analyst Moeen Moee.

Meanwhile, a government source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Ghani’s meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Brussels had come as a surprise.

The source said that Merkel only accepted the invitation for the bilateral meeting at the last minute.

But, the Presidential Palace said the president met with western leaders in accordance with a pre-arranged schedule.

In response however, the government source said Kabul had tried hard to arrange bilateral meetings with some powerful Western leaders at the summit, but that their requests were not met.

Asked to respond to these questions, Ghani meanwhile said remarks about Afghanistan had been more positive than those made in the past.

“It is the first time that the international community did not make suggestions to the Afghanistan government about corruption; instead the international community called for the expansion and continuation of reforms and the continuation of the fight against corruption; achieving such a commitment was unimaginable two years ago,” said Ghani.

Questions Raised Over Ghani’s Failure To Meet Key Leaders

To date the president has only ever met with Donald Trump once and that was on the sidelines of a UN meeting.

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Questions have been raised in Afghanistan over why President Ashraf Ghani did not hold bilateral meetings with either NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg or with US President Donald Trump during last week’s NATO Heads of State and Government summit in Brussels.

Ghani was expected to hold talks with both Trump and Stoltenberg on the sidelines of the summit – but neither meetings transpired.

This came despite Trump having said during his speech in Brussels that he would like to meet with Ghani.

Ghani meanwhile said after the summit that the international community has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Afghanistan.

Over the past two decades, Afghanistan has been a focal point of politics in Washington and high level officials from Afghanistan and the United States have continuously discussed the need to jointly fight terrorism.

But to date, Ghani has only met with Trump once and that was during a visit to the US for a UN meeting in September last year. The Ghani-Trump meeting took place on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly meeting in New York and not at the White House.

Other heads of state have however met with Trump at the White House.

Currently, the US is heavily involved in Afghanistan and with close to 10,000 troops stationed in the country, it remains an active partner in the fight against terrorism.

As such, questions have been raised as to why neither Trump, Stoltenberg or even the UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May failed to hold bilateral meetings with Ghani last week.

Photographs taken at the NATO summit in Brussels show that Ghani met only a few heads of state of NATO member countries.

One video released by the UK’s Daily Mail shows that leaders of the National Unity Government (NUG) appeared to have been much closer to each other at the summit than what they usually are back home.

Some MPs have however said some foreign countries do not show much respect where Afghanistan is concerned.

“We have never had a powerful and stable government to bring the system and the people under one umbrella, in order to settle the problems of the people; because of this, the world does not deal with us with respect,” said Qudratullah Sahak, an MP.

“All these issues we face have been causing our international partners to ignore their relations with Afghanistan, especially with the political leaders and they even break their promises,” said MP Fakoor Behishti.

“Recently the US secretary of state also made a surprise trip to Kabul and expressed concerns and held talks with the leaders of the National Unity Government. I see some kind of discontent between National Unity Government, NATO and the US president,” said political analyst Moeen Moee.

Meanwhile, a government source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Ghani’s meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Brussels had come as a surprise.

The source said that Merkel only accepted the invitation for the bilateral meeting at the last minute.

But, the Presidential Palace said the president met with western leaders in accordance with a pre-arranged schedule.

In response however, the government source said Kabul had tried hard to arrange bilateral meetings with some powerful Western leaders at the summit, but that their requests were not met.

Asked to respond to these questions, Ghani meanwhile said remarks about Afghanistan had been more positive than those made in the past.

“It is the first time that the international community did not make suggestions to the Afghanistan government about corruption; instead the international community called for the expansion and continuation of reforms and the continuation of the fight against corruption; achieving such a commitment was unimaginable two years ago,” said Ghani.

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