US declares Afghanistan MNNA

[Sher Malang]

Saturday July 07 2012

Barack Obama's government has declared Afghanistan the United States' newest "major non-Nato ally".

The move is designed to aid close defence co-operation after US combat troops withdraw from the country in 2014 and as a political statement of support for Afghanistan's long-term stability.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who arrived in Kabul on an unannounced visit to meet Afghan president Hamid Karzai, disclosed the alliance to diplomats at the US embassy.

The designation allows for streamlined defence co-operation, including faster purchasing ability of American equipment and easier export control regulations.

Afghanistan's military, which is heavily dependent on American and foreign assistance, already enjoys many of these benefits and the non-Nato ally status guarantees it will continue to do so.

"I am going to be announcing formally with President Karzai in just a little bit that President Obama has officially designated Afghanistan as what's called a major non-Nato ally of the United States," Mrs Clinton said.

Afghanistan becomes the 15th such country the US has declared a major non-Nato ally. Others include Australia, Egypt, Israel and Japan. Afghanistan's neighbour Pakistan was the last nation to gain the status in 2004.

The declaration was part of a Strategic Partnership Agreement signed by Mr Obama and Mr Karzai in Kabul at the beginning of May.

On July 4 US ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker and the country's foreign minister announced that the two countries had completed their internal processes to ratify the agreement, which has now gone into force.

Mrs Clinton and Mr Karzai were expected to discuss US-Afghan civilian and defence ties and stalled Afghan reconciliation efforts. From Kabul, Mrs Clinton is heading to Japan for an international conference on Afghan civilian assistance.



Source: US declares Afghanistan major ally - World News, Breaking News - Newrossstandard.ie

US boosts Afghanistan's status, making it easier to get defense equipment

By NBC News and news services

The United States has named Afghanistan a "major non-NATO ally," a status that will make it easier for the Afghan government to acquire U.S. defense materiel, U.S. officials said on Saturday.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who arrived in Kabul on an unannounced visit to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai, disclosed the alliance to diplomats at the U.S. Embassy.

The designation allows for streamlined defense cooperation, including expedited purchasing ability of American equipment and easier export control regulations. Afghanistan's military, which is heavily dependent on American and foreign assistance, already enjoys many of these benefits. The non-NATO ally status guarantees it will continue to do so.

The "designation provides a long-term framework for our security and defense cooperation," a State Department statement said. "It reinforces the strong bilateral defense relationship between the United States and Afghanistan by helping support aligned defense planning, procurement and training. Only a limited number of countries have this special status."

Afghanistan becomes the 15th such country the U.S. has declared a major non-NATO ally. Others include Australia, Egypt, Israel and Japan. Afghanistan's neighbor Pakistan was the last nation to gain the status in 2004.

The declaration was part of a Strategic Partnership Agreement signed by Presidents Barack Obama and Karzai in Kabul at the beginning of May.

On July 4, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, and the country's foreign minister announced that the two countries had completed their internal processes to ratify the Agreement, which has now gone into force.

In their meeting, Clinton and Karzai were expected to discuss U.S.-Afghan civilian and defense ties and stalled Afghan reconciliation efforts.

From Kabul, Clinton is heading later Saturday to Japan for an international conference on Afghan civilian assistance. Donors are expected to pledge around $4 billion a year in long-term civilian support.

Clinton arrived in Afghanistan from Paris, where she attended a 100-nation conference on Syria.

U.S. officials traveling with Clinton declined to say how much aid the United States would pledge at the Tokyo meeting, nor how much was expected to be committed overall as the international community seeks to back the Afghan economy and prevent the country from sliding back into chaos as foreign troops withdraw.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: US boosts Afghanistan's status, making it easier to get defense equipment - World News

 

[fatman17]

go check the tread on the state of the Afghan Air Force. 43 new or upgraded helos are rotting in the desert. this opens the dooe for the transfer of EDA as well as new equipment which the afghans will not be able to operate let alone maintain the equipment which in turn will give the US the excuse to station 'trainers' in afghanistan. good ploy!

 

[Sher Malang]

go check the tread on the state of the Afghan Air Force. 43 new or upgraded helos are rotting in the desert. this opens the dooe for the transfer of EDA as well as new equipment which the afghans will not be able to operate let alone maintain the equipment which in turn will give the US the excuse to station 'trainers' in afghanistan. good ploy!

Don't worry we will get whatever is necessary and those refurbished planes are no use for us they better change them or announce a maintenance contract. Fighter jets and SAMs will be the first ones which will be requested by AAF after 2016 once their trainings completes in USA, UAE and Turkey.

 

[fatman17]

Don't worry we will get whatever is necessary and those refurbished planes are no use for us they better change them or announce a maintenance contract. Fighter jets and SAMs will be the first ones which will be requested by AAF after 2016 once their trainings completes in USA, UAE and Turkey.

i'm not worried. Good Luck to you and your country.

 

[MSNGUY]

Well with all the major activities being carried upon by america it seems that perhaps the u.s is trying to bring back the long lost policy of colonialism into action........

 

[SpArK]

U.S. boosts Afghan status, now easier to acquire defense equipment | Reuters

 

[newdelhinsa]

Good move Afghanistan can say good by to AQ sheltering rouge Taliban forever. Also it will establish that Afghanistan is not anyone's backyard, may be in literal geographical terms not military or strategic.

 

[graphican]

Good move Afghanistan can say good by to AQ sheltering rouge Taliban forever. Also it will establish that Afghanistan is not anyone's backyard, may be in literal geographical terms not military or strategic.

This is your paint point. You are not friendly towards Afghanistan because it suits India, you support it because you cannot comprehend it being a support for Pakistan. Its funny to see how helpless and compelled you are to think WRT Pakistan every time you think.

Pakistan doesn't need a backyard anyway, but we need friends in 4 corners of our homeland. In case we cannot make friend with India, we need friends on 3 corners of Pakistan and Afghanistan is a friend, just like Iran and China so we are happy to have our friends getting stronger, stabler and not just self-reliant but also supportive at the time of need. But we do need to eliminate Indian influence from Afghanistan and Pakistan should act more actively to make that happen.

 

[Sher Malang]

U.S. Grants Special Ally Status to Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — The United States declared Afghanistan a major, non-NATO ally on Saturday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton personally delivering the news of Afghanistan’s entry into a club that includes Israel, Japan, Pakistan and other close Asian and Middle Eastern allies.

The move, announced as Mrs. Clinton stood alongside President Hamid Karzai amid the towering trees and rose beds on the grounds of Kabul’s presidential palace, was part of a broad strategic partnership deal signed by America and Afghanistan in July, she said. The pact went into effect this past week.

“We see this as a powerful symbol of our commitment to Afghanistan’s future,” Mrs. Clinton told reporters at the palace.

Afghanistan’s designation as a formal ally was the latest in a series of recent American moves that have eased — though not fully erased — Afghan fears of being abandoned at the end of NATO’s combat mission in 2014.


The next step, Afghan and American officials say, is working out a deal that would keep a residual American force here to continue training Afghan soldiers and hunting militant targets after 2014. Talks on the arrangement have not yet begun, American officials say, and estimates they offer on the number of troops that could stay vary from as few as 10,000 to as many as 25,000 or 30,000.

But Mrs. Clinton reiterated on Saturday that Washington did envision keeping American troops in Afghanistan, where they would also be on hand to provide the kind of air power and surveillance capabilities needed to give Afghan forces an edge over the Taliban.

“This is the kind of relationship that we think will be especially beneficial as we do the transition and as we plan for the post-2014 presence,” she said. “It will open the door to Afghanistan’s military to have a greater capability and a broader kind of relationship with the United States and especially the United States military.”

Mrs. Clinton made a short stop in Kabul en route to Tokyo, where an international conference will be held to raise money to support the Afghan government after 2014. She spoke briefly at the American Embassy before having breakfast with Mr. Karzai and then speaking to reporters.

American officials have struggled at times to assuage Afghan fears of abandonment. Many here fear the country is headed toward a repeat of the early 1990s, when the fall of the Soviet-backed government, coupled with an American pull back from the region, left Afghanistan mired in a brutal civil war.

The Taliban grew out of the chaos, and they quickly took over much of the country.

Along with reassuring jittery Afghans, Mrs. Clinton made clear that she was also sending a message to the Taliban with Saturday’s announcement.

The alliance and other American commitments to Afghanistan “should make clear to the Taliban that they cannot wait us out,” she said, according to a copy of her prepared remarks. “They can renounce international terrorism and commit to an Afghan peace process, or they will face the increasingly capable Afghan national security forces, backed by the United States.”

At the same time, Washington remains committed to the stalled Afghan peace process, she said. The insurgents suspended talks in March — halting negotiations before they really began — over delays in a proposed prisoner swap that would see the United States release five Taliban prisoners from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American soldier known to be held by the insurgents.

Designating Afghanistan an ally, however, has the potential to raise awkward issues for the United States. There is Afghanistan’s hot-and-cold relationship with Pakistan, also an ally, and the possibility the two neighbors could fall out with each other, especially if Afghan officials believe in the years after 2014 that their Pakistani counterparts continue to aid the Taliban.

Afghanistan, one of the 10 poorest countries in the world, is also the least developed of America’s major, non-NATO allies by a wide margin. Other allies — such as South Korea, Argentina, Australia and Thailand — are far more capable of defending themselves and policing their own territory; Afghanistan is only capable of doing that now and for the foreseeable future with ample American help.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/world/asia/us-grants-special-ally-status-to-afghanistan.html?_r=1

 

[Juice]

Well with all the major activities being carried upon by america it seems that perhaps the u.s is trying to bring back the long lost policy of colonialism into action........

Lol, yeah, because sooo many Americans wanna go to AF to set up plantations...get a grip.

 

[peep]

US designates Afghanistan as major non-Nato ally and hits Pak with drone strikes - The Times of India

WASHINGTON: Amid swirling controversy over the price for the reluctant apology-of-sorts it extracted from the United States, Pakistan's pride suffered a double blow this weekend. The US launched a major drone attack inside Pakistan on Friday signaling that its policy of exterminating terrorists through unmanned air strikes would continued despite the apology and in the face of parliamentary resolutions. This was followed up on Saturday by the US naming Afghanistan as a major non-Nato ally, a status that was bestowed on Pakistan in 2004 during the more blameless phase in the war on terror.

The drone attack was the first since Pakistan re-opened the so-called ground lines of communications (glocs) forming the Nato supply route to Afghanistan earlier this week. It was reported to have killed between 17 to 24 people, an atypically high toll. But more than the body count, it was a body blow to Pakistani hopes that the US would not continue its policy of eliminating militants in areas where Islamabad's writ does not run. Stopping of drone attacks was one of Pakistan's pre-conditions to open glocs, but the US has evidently decided to ignore it.

The major non-Nato ally designation to Afghanistan, announced during a surprise visit to Kabul by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was an even sharper diplomatic rebuke, since it placed the two antagonistic countries on equal footing, rather than recognize Pakistan's long sought parity with India, now a fading idea across the world. The designation facilitates closer defense cooperation between the U.S and its allies, and in this case it signals the Washington will continue to be deeply engaged in Afghanistan long after a majority of its troops are withdrawn, even as Pakistan is falling off the US radar as an ally and is widely seen as moving from a ''frenemy'' to an outright adversary.

Afghanistan is the 15th country to be designated a MNNA, a list that includes Australia, Egypt, Israel, Kuwait, South Korea, Argentina, New Zealand, Philippines, and Japan. Pakistan was the last nation to gain the status in 2004, when then Secretary of State Colin Powell, in thrall of his fellow retired general Pervez Musharraf, designated it an MNNA despite its dodgy role before, during, and in the weeks and months after 9/11.

Much has changed since then. Ideally, the dual designations would have facilitated US operations in the region. But Washington's commentariat now sees Pakistan as cynically exploiting the US and polls show that public in both countries regard the other as enemy. Some analysts have said that the fiction of Pakistani friendship is becoming increasingly hard to maintain.

In remarks after her meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, Clinton said the US sees the MNNA designation ''as a powerful symbol of our commitment to Afghanistan's future.'' The new status, which comes into effect immediately, makes it easier for a country to purchase and finance its acquisition of US defense equipment.

Pakistan and its terrorist proxies have been hoping for long that they will regain strategic space in the region when the US packs up from Afghanistan, but that is increasingly looking unlikely in the way Pakistan's generals visualized it, with Washington bulking up Kabul for the tough days ahead. Clinton, who is on a 13-day farewell swing through Asia, warned, ''We are not even imagining abandoning Afghanistan.''

 

[regular]

go check the tread on the state of the Afghan Air Force. 43 new or upgraded helos are rotting in the desert. this opens the dooe for the transfer of EDA as well as new equipment which the afghans will not be able to operate let alone maintain the equipment which in turn will give the US the excuse to station 'trainers' in afghanistan. good ploy!

I wish the USA give some new Vipers F-16nz to the Afghans AirForce.That will be excellent for us......

 

[Awesome]

After a few years it will be bombing Afghanistan too - oh wait its always been doing that.

 

[Sher Malang]

After a few years it will be bombing Afghanistan too - oh wait its always been doing that.

Oh yeah same as they did to Pakistan after declaring it 'major ally' in 2004 but wait we will try not to make mistakes which Pakistan has made!

PS: What was the point of changing the thread title?

It better suited before as 'US declares Afghanistan major ally' not ' US declares Afghanistan MNNA'

No one knows what MNNA means behind the topic - too much obsession towards Afghanistan?

 

[Areesh]

So in other words Afghanistan would continue to be a launch pad for anti-Pakistan elements. Cool.