President Barack Obama Tuesday made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan to mark a year passing since the raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Obama arrived in Afghanistan under cover of darkness Tuesday night local time and plans to address the United States people at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time - roughly 4 a.m. Wednesday morning in Kabul.
According to reports by news organizations traveling with Obama and confirmed by the White House to RTTNews, Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai plan to sign a strategic partnership agreement pledging U.S. support for Afghanistan for another 10 years.
Due to security concerns, the journalists traveling with Obama were barred from releasing the news of the visit until Obama had arrived in the country and had traveled to the Presidential Palace in Kabul for the signing of the agreement.
The 10-page strategic partnership agreement signed by the two presidents is, according to reports, aimed at defining U.S. support for Afghanistan after the NATO combat mission in the country comes to an end in 2014.
Following the signing of that document Obama is expected to return to Bagram Air Base outside the Afghan capital to deliver his remarks.
The trip, though likely planned well in advance, comes amid sparring between Obama and his presumptive Republican challenger in November, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney.
In recent days the two have traded barbs over the subject, with Romney claiming that Obama was seeking undue credit for ordering the raid while Obama's re-election team has pointed to statements Romney made in 2007 and 2008 to insinuate that Romney would not have made the same decision.
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