(VOVworld) – The US says it hopes a key bilateral security agreement (BSA) with Afghanistan can be signed next week as President elect Ashraf Ghani will take office on September 29.
According to an anonymous official of the US State Department, negotiation of the BSA has long been finished and no one wants to change the agreed content. The official said cooperation with Afghanistan’s new coalition government is a positive sign that the BSA will be signed soon.
The security agreement will determine the number of US soldiers to remain in Afghanistan after most foreign troops withdraw at the end of the year. At present, around 41,000 NATO troops are stationed in Afghanistan. Their mission will end at the end of this year. If the BSA is signed, NATO will maintain 12,000 troops including 8,500 US soldiers, in Afghanistan until the end of 2015 in support of Afghanistan’s security force.