Hillary Clinton on a Surprise Visit to Afghanistan

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit, a day prior to an international conference of Afghanistan’s foreign donors in Japan.

In her surprise visit to the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Saturday morning, the top US diplomat is set to hold talks with President Hamid Karzai over US-Afghan civilian and defense relations. 

“The secretary wanted to be able [to] stop in Kabul en route to Tokyo, in large part just to check signals before this last major, significant ministerial conference,” a senior US State Department official said. 

Addressing American diplomats at the US embassy in Kabul upon her arrival, Clinton declared Afghanistan a “major non-NATO ally”. 

“I am going to be announcing formally with President Karzai in just a little bit that President Obama has officially designated Afghanistan as what’s called a major non-NATO ally of the United States,” Clinton said.

Clinton said the designation indicated the US “commitment to Afghanistan’s future,” adding that “We are not even imagining abandoning Afghanistan.”, according to Press TV. 

The US Secretary of State is due to head to the Japanese capital of Tokyo to attend the conference, where foreign donors are expected to pledge around $4 billion in annual development assistance to war-torn Afghanistan.