Afghan President Thanks Trump for ‘Game-Changer’ US Strategy

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) shakes hands with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani (R) after a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Kabul on July 9, 2018. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a surprise visit to Kabul on July 9 for talks with Afghan leaders, an Afghan official said, amid renewed optimism for peace in the war-weary country. (Photo by WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP) (Photo credit should read WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP/Getty Images)

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani thanked President Donald Trump for his strategy in Afghanistan, which he described as “a game-changer” during a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 9.

“Please thank President Trump and the members of the U.S. national security team for their trust in the future of Afghanistan and for bringing a strategy that has been a game-changer,” Ghani said, according to a transcript.

Ghani also told Pompeo, “Mr. Secretary, the strategy is working. It has had significant impact. It is getting every actor and stakeholder engaged in the conflict around Afghanistan to recalculate, recalibrate, and think through the basic premise.”

“What we particularly welcome about the strategy is the concept of a secure Afghanistan within a stable South Asia.”

In addition to passing along his thanks to Trump and to the U.S. national security team, Ghani also thanked U.S. troops who fought for 17 years to free his country from Taliban rule.

“Over a million men and women in uniform have served with us,” he said. “They will have a place in our hearts, and we are always moved to tears when they say they have left a piece of their heart in Afghanistan.”

He noted the strategy is to create conditions for “enduring peace and stability” and that because of this strategy and its conditions, Ghani and his team “have been able to take bold steps, to think outside the box, and to articulate an agenda of peace that is truly comprehensive and asks for engagement.”

He added that while the ceasefire in Afghanistan was experimental, it has been effective. That the Afghan people “display a genuine sense of a nation that is tired of war, that is willing to look to the future rather than the past, that can take all the casualties of the week before the ceasefire and have the compassion and the commitment to reconcile, has been truly moving,” Ghani said.