The U.S. may maintain a presence in Afghanistan well beyond 2014, according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
“We’re willing to do that. My sense is that [the Afghans are] interested in having us do that,” Gates told U.S. troops Monday during a trip to Afghanistan. “There’s a desire on both sides to have an arrangement that goes beyond 2014.”
Gates emphasized that the U.S. presence will be at a ”small fraction” of its current scope and that negotiations will occur within the next several months.
The U.S. is scheduled to begin the gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan by summer of 2011 followed by a full transfer security responsibilities to the Afghans in 2014.
Gates arrived in Afghanistan Monday morning in an unannounced trip. He held a joint press briefing with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and is also expected to have conversations with U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry and General David Petraeus, who oversees U.S. forces in the country.