The Taliban have taken control over majority of areas in Afghanistan ON Aug 16, 2021, including Kabul. Afghan President and VP have fled the country after Taliban's siege in Afghanistan. In his statement, Ashraf Ghani said that he left the country to avoid bloodshed.
25 – June – 2021
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Good morning Mr. President. Once again, it is an honor for me, Speaker of the House, to welcome you to the Capitol of the United States. We are many friends looked forward to meeting with you this morning. As you know, we have had a relationship between our two countries, an intense relationship for the past twenty years.
As we enter a new phase of that relationship, we look forward to hearing from you how we can do so with humanitarian assistance. As you know in our country, there is a great interest in the future of women and girls in Afghanistan. As I think that the progress was made, I saw it myself in my nine visits to Afghanistan, the advancement of women and girls in your country. Thank you for your leadership, yours and Mrs. Ghaniโs leadership in that regard.
We look forward to having a conversation about how we strengthen our relationship through humanitarian assistance. Our friendship is one that is deep and personal and one that we value. Again this visit that you are making to the capital is an important one for both our countries, certainly for us. With that, I welcome you Mr. President.
President Ashraf Ghani
Madam speaker; thank you for those words.
It is a great pleasure to be here. First of all, the decision of President Biden has been a strategic decision. We respect that decision. It is dealing with a new chapter of our friendship; our strategic relationship and our people to people relationship and government to government relationship that we have focused.
Our discussion has been productive and we look very much forward to the culminating decisions and meeting with President today.
I would like to thank you first for your multiple visits and for your deep interest in Afghanistan, for your leadership and particularly the issue that has been very dear to my heart, the empowerment of Afghan women.
The first lady joins me in sending thanks and regards from all women of Afghanistan to you.
What moves me in my daily work is meeting with young girls from schools and when I ask them, โHow many of you want to become President?โ 80 to 90 percent of hands go up. That is the new Afghanistan.
We face a transition that 21 years of engagement of international security forces is being now dealt with in a systematic manner. I am looking very much forward to discussion of detail. And your assistance today humanitarian area for the people of Afghanistan who are facing the challenges of covid-19, the third wave, a drought and displacement because of the brutal attacks of the Taliban will be essential.
Thank you again Madam speaker. And thank you for your friendship and commitment to the empowerment and further improvement of the lives of women and girls in Afghanistan and all the Afghan people.
Thank you
