A much touted strategic partnership agreement between Afghanistan and the United States is to be signed ahead of a conference due to take place in Chicago in May, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday. "We have agreed on new conditions that will (allow us) to be ready to sign the strategic treaty act with the US before the Chicago summit (on Afghanistan)," Karzai said at a ceremony in Kabul marking International Women's Day.
The treaty will also help determine military and civilian aid to the war-torn country beyond 2014. On Friday, the US and the Afghan defence ministries signed an agreement on the handover of prisons, one of two sticking points standing in the way of the pact being signed.
The other source of controversy involves the night raids carried out by US-led forces on Afghan homes. On Sunday, Karzai reiterated that there will be no strategic agreement if Nato does not stop such operations. Karzai said his government also planned to hold separate talks on future US military installations inside Afghanistan.
"The issue of military installations in Afghanistan that the Americans will use (after 2014) will not be included in the strategic pact. This time, we will only sign a general framework of the partnership," he said. Karzai said several open questions remained, including on who would be ultimately responsible for such bases and how many soldiers would they host.
The president also said that the US and its allies had agreed to contribute 4.1 billion dollars in annual aid for Afghan security forces after 2014.