U.S. seeks turnaround in ties with Karzai
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Upon his arrival for a four-day visit,Afghan President Hamid Karzai was greeted with a rarely high-profile reception by the U.S. government, which seeks a turnaround for the strained bilateral ties.
Strained ties
However, fundamental problems and other cracks in U.S.-Afghan relations will not disappear overnight, analysts said.
It was only a year ago when the Obama administration had attempted to abandon Karzai, whose government was accused of rampant corruption, in the Afghan presidential election.
U.S. Ambassador in Kabul Karl Eikenberry said explicitly at the time that the Afghan leader was not "an adequate strategic partner."
However, Karzai was re-elected despite charges of massive voting frauds.
In a recent visit to Afghanistan, U.S. President Barack Obama warned Karzai about the problems of his government, asking him to do more to fight corruption and drug trafficking.
But Karzai fired back days later, publicly accusing Western countries of being responsible for the election frauds, and even threatening to join the Taliban.
Bilateral relations were further strained when the White House later threatened that it may cancel the current visit of the Afghan president to Washington.
Change of approach
However, seeing that the tough approach failed to work and backfired, the Obama administration decided to change tactics toward Karzai.
Analysts said Washington may have realized that no matter it likes the Afghan president or not, he will be in office for another four and a half years and more importantly, his support is crucial for Obama to achieve the goal of beginning withdrawal of U.S. troops in July 2011.
In a demonstration of hospitality and friendship, Obama spent nearly a whole day on Wednesday to hold talks and a joint press conference with Karzai, and even have lunch with the Afghan delegation.
At the joint press conference, both Obama and Karzai tried hard to downplay disagreements and display solidarity.
"There are going to be tensions in such a complicated, difficult environment. With respect to perceived tensions between the U.S. government and the Afghan government ... a lot of them were simply overstated," said the U.S. president.
Contrary to his past statements, Obama praised Karzai's efforts in fighting corruption and improving governance and responded to Afghan complaints by pledging to take "extraordinary measures" to avoid civilian casualties caused by U.S. military actions.
In order to ease Karzai's concerns on the aftermath of U.S. pullout, the U.S. president reaffirmed long-term U.S. commitment and support to Afghanistan even after the troop withdrawal.
"I have reaffirmed the commitment of the Unites States to an Afghanistan that is strong and prosperous," he said.
However, the new U.S. approach toward Karzai will not erase all the past feuds, analysts said.
Both sides will still strongly disagree on issues such as corruption and governance in Afghanistan and Obama continues to oppose Karzai's attempt to reach out to Taliban militants.
But at least Washington will from now on try to raise those issues in a more private and prudent way.
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