Obama, Ghani to Discuss US-Afghan Relations

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani arrived in Washington on Sunday for his first official visit to the United States since taking office in January, CNN reports.

The highly anticipated visit marks the latest chapter in an evolving U.S.-Afghan relationship — one that seems to be warming even as the governments seek to bridge the gap on key security issues.

At the outset, U.S. officials say they hope to use the opportunity presented by this visit to build up the bilateral relationship, which has improved greatly since Ghani took over from his predecessor, former President Hamid Karzai.

“This is a different relationship than we had under President Karzai,” Jeff Eggers, special assistant to the President for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told reporters in a conference call Friday. “It’s clearly more cooperative and better.”