Agence France-Presse (AFP) featured the Atlantic Council’s Skype event with Afghanistan presidential hopeful Ashraf Ghani:

Afghan presidential hopeful Ashraf Ghani vowed Friday to sign a security pact with the United States within a week if he wins an upcoming run-off election.

His pledge came only days after US President Barack Obama said the 32,000 American forces in Afghanistan will be scaled back to 9,800 by early 2015 and complete a full withdrawal by the end of 2016.

“I’m committed to signing a bilateral security agreement within the first week of taking over,” Ghani said, addressing an audience in Washington via Skype from the western Afghan city of Herat.

“The reason is that our national security forces need assurances regarding our global partnerships and the resources both human and material that would come through the bilateral security agreement,” Ghani told the Atlantic Council think-tank.

Read the full coverage here.