Obama Tells Karzai: 'We're on the Right Track'

At NATO summit, Obama supports 2014 pullout
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted May 20, 2012 2:35 PM CDT
Obama Tells Karzai: 'We're on the Right Track'
US President Barack Obama shakes ands with Afghan President Hamid Karzai during the NATO Summit May 20, 2012 at McCormick Place in Chicago.   (Getty Images)

President Obama met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai today at the NATO summit and urged world leaders to agree on post-2014 Afghanistan, MSNBC reports. "What this NATO summit reflects is that the world is behind strategy we've laid out," Obama said of the plan to pull out coalition troops in two years. Standing with Obama in Chicago, Karzai said he looked forward to a time when his nation "is no longer a burden on the shoulder of our friends in the international community."

Earlier, a NATO official threw cold water on France's promise to yank its troops by the end of the year: "There will be no rush for the exits," said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Leaders at the two-day NATO summit will save the full Afghanistan discussion for tomorrow, the Washington Post reports. On today's agenda: a host of other issues, including the alliance's possible role in Syria and Iran, and coordinating defense cuts among NATO's 28 members. (More Hamid Karzai stories.)

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