WASHINGTON: The United States and Afghanistan agreed on Saturday to continue joint efforts for combating terrorism beyond 2016, when the current arrangement for keeping US forces in that country expires.

In a statement issued in Washington, the US State Department said that US forces would carry out two important missions after 2016: training, advising, and assisting the official Afghan forces in coordination with international partners; and “cooperating bilaterally on shared efforts to counter terrorism.”

Earlier Saturday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani held the third meeting of the US-Afghanistan Bilateral Commission to review progress in the bilateral relationship and chart a course for future cooperation.

As part of ongoing efforts to strengthen the Afghan security forces, the United States announced that 14 MD-530 attack helicopters and eight A-29 aircraft have been successfully integrated into the Afghan security forces.

The addition of 14 more MD-530s before August 2016 will further enhance the operational capabilities of the Afghan Air Force, the State Department said.

The commission reaffirmed the commitment of both governments to Afghanistan’s future as “a strong, stable, democratic, and self-reliant state,” the State Department said.

The United States and Afghanistan will hold two more meetings this year before the Obama administration completes its final term: first at the Nato Summit in Warsaw and the second at the Brussels Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan in October.

At these meetings, the will work other partners for renewing international security and development assistance pledges for Afghanistan, the State Department said.

At the bilateral commission’s meeting, Secretary Kerry and Minister Rabbani called for an end to insecurity and violent attacks that resulted in over 11,000 civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2015 alone.

“To weaken and defeat terrorists, while denying them safe haven, both sides reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen the security and stability of Afghanistan,” the statement said.

It noted that the US and Afghanistan had also completed the semi-annual Program Management Review to validate America’s long-term security cooperation partnership and to continue efforts to develop an effective, affordable, and sustainable Afghan defence and security force.

The United States also welcomed Afghanistan’s participation in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism and its active cooperation in developing a strategic trade control system and associated border controls that help prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Noting that a negotiated political settlement is the best and surest way to bring peace to Afghanistan, Secretary Kerry and Minster Rabbani welcomed the efforts of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group in creating an environment conducive to bringing the Taliban and its affiliates to the negotiation table with the goal of creating a lasting peace in Afghanistan.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2016