Tuesday, July 23, 2013
The Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS) hosted Mr. James Cunningham, the Ambassador of the United States in Kabul, as guest speaker at the ‘High Tea With Ambassador’ Lecture Series held by AISS. Members of Afghan government, High Peace Council, civil society, parliament, and media attended the event,
Dr. Davood Moradian, Director of AISS, opened the event and spoke about the need for such gatherings as means to elucidating mutual misperception between Afghanistan and its international partners.
Ambassador Cunningham, spoke about the US strategy in Afghanistan. He expressed United States’ unequivocal support for a free and fair presidential election next year. However, the US support would only be limited to technical, security, and financial aspects of the process, and that the United State would not be involved in backing any particular candidate the Ambassador stressed. He further said that the United States would assist the Afghan Security Forces within the context of the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) which is currently under negotiation.
The event ended with the Ambassador taking questions from the participants.