WASHINGTON: US Vice President Mike Pence assured Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday that the Trump administration would continue America’s strategic partnership with the Central Asian state.

The two leaders met in Munich on the sidelines of an international security conference. This was the first face-to-face meeting between a US and a South Asian leader since the Jan 20 inauguration of the new Trump administration in Washington.

“The Vice President expressed support for the (Afghan) National Unity Government” and the two leaders discussed “opportunities to strengthen the bilateral relationship and advance mutual interests, particularly in the areas of counterterrorism cooperation and economic development,” said a statement issued by the White House in Washington.

“Both leaders also affirmed the continued importance of the strategic partnership between the United States and Afghanistan,” the White House added.

The Trump administration is using the conference to reassure America’s jittery Western allies that Washington will continue to support Nato, the post-World War II military alliance that Donald Trump dismissed as “obsolete” during the 2016 election campaign.

Vice President Pence told the conference that the United States would maintain its “unwavering” commitment to Nato and President Trump would “stand with Europe.”

Afghanistan and Iraq, the two countries where the United States and Nato still have a military presence, are also attending the Munich conference, which focuses primarily on America’s commitment to Nato.

On Saturday, Mr Pence also met Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi and President Masoud Barzani of the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

In his meeting with Prime Minister Abadi, the US leader stressed that “we will not allow Iran to threaten the stability of our partners in the region, including Iraq,” the White House said.

The statement noted that both leaders underscored the urgency of continued progress in the fight against ISIS, Iraq’s economic recovery, and cooperation to liberate Mosul.

Mr Pence lauded the close ongoing cooperation between the Iraqi Security Forces and Kurdish Peshmerga and both leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to the long-term partnership between the United States and Iraq grounded in the US-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement, the White House said.

In another statement, the White House said that Mr Pence met briefly with the President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani and “conveyed continued US support for a unified, federal, and democratic Iraq.”

Mr Pence encouraged close cooperation between the government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government and the two leaders underscored the urgency of continued progress in the fight against ISIS and cooperation to liberate Mosul, the White House said.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2017