U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry assured India and other concerned partners in this volatile region Monday that the United States plans to continue supporting Afghanistan's military and to keep American forces in the country "under any circumstances" after the scheduled 2014 combat troop withdrawal.India is particularly worried that the U.S. pullout will leave an ongoing war in Afghanistan between Taliban fighters backed by Pakistan and other forces that have sought aid from India and Central Asian countries to combat any Taliban attempt to regain power.
India also has questioned U.S. plans to conduct peace negotiations with the Taliban in a new political office for the insurgents established last week in Doha, the capital of the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar. An inaugural session of the talks was put on hold last week after Afghan President Hamid Karzai objected to the Taliban labeling the office an outpost of "the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," the name under which the Taliban ruled the country until they were ousted by U.S. and Afghan forces in 2001.
James Dobbins, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, who was scheduled to head the American delegation to the talks, traveled to Kabul on Monday to meet with Karzai and other Afghan officials in an attempt to control damage.
Dobbins described a meeting with Karzai as "quite positive" and said the two countries were waiting to see "whether the Taliban want to talk."