CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan // The US defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, told American troops on Sunday that he supported a Nato force playing a role in Afghanistan after 2014, as Washington and Kabul wrangle over a stalled security pact.
Mr Hagel met troops in Helmand province a day after further tensions over the security pact that would allow Nato forces to stay in the country after next year.
“I believe there is a role for our coalition partners and the United States, but that depends on the Afghan people,” Mr Hagel said.
“If the people of Afghanistan want to continue that relationship, then we will.”
US commanders were looking at “a new phase for our mission to train, assist, advise and counter-terrorism,” he said.
Meetings with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, have been customary over the years for Pentagon chiefs, but Mr Hagel said on Saturday after his arrival that he had no plans to meet Mr Karzai during his weekend visit.
As Barack Obama’s top national security adviser, Susan Rice, and the US secretary of state, John Kerry, had already had frank discussions with Mr Karzai urging him to sign the security agreement, Mr Hagel said there was no point in him repeating the US position.
“There’s not much I can add in a meeting with President Karzai to what’s already been said,” he said on Saturday.
Mr Hagel met the Afghan defence minister, who assured him the security agreement would be signed in “a timely manner”.
Mr Karzai, who visited Iran on Sunday, initially endorsed the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), but has since refused to sign and issued fresh demands.
The agreement sets the legal conditions to permit US and other forces to operate in the country beyond 2014.
But without a signed deal, countries ready to send troops to a post-2014 training mission cannot make budget plans or secure political approval, Mr Hagel said.
Mr Karzai has said the signature could take place after elections in April, but Mr Hagel said that would push the timeline into mid-2014 as the polls are expected to result in a run-off vote.
Eventually there will be “a cut-off point” to cancel a post-2014 mission, Mr Hagel said, adding that he was “not prepared to give a date on that”.
* Agence France-Presse