The power-sharing deal struck by Afghanistan’s two top presidential candidates “puts us in a much better place than we were a week ago,” America’s top uniformed military commander said in a statement.
“Now we need a signed security agreement and a NATO [status of forces agreement], both of which should be accomplished fairly quickly,” said U.S. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In the Afghan agreement, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, who has been named the winner of the presidential election, will become the new president, replacing outgoing President Hamid Karzai. Meanwhile Abdullah Abdullah, the runner-up, will become chief executive. The deal was announced this weekend.
Dempsey issued the statement while visiting Vilnius, Lithuania, where he met with chiefs of defense for other member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Other topics for discussion among the NATO bosses were the situation in Russia and Ukraine as well as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon said in a statement. The group also chose Czech military commander Petr Pavel as the next chairman of the NATO Military Committee, succeeding Gen. Knud Bartels of Denmark.
“His appointment is significant, because [Pavel] will be the first Eastern European military leader to take the job,” Dempsey said in the statement.
