Recently-appointed US Secretary of State John Kerry Monday arrived in Kabul in an unannounced visit to meet the Afghan President Hamid Karzai after weeks of heightened tensions between Kabul and Washington.
"Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Kabul today to reaffirm the US commitment to our strategic partnership with Afghanistan and to underscore our support for Afghanistan's ongoing security, political, and economic transitions," the US Embassy to Afghanistan said in a statement.
"Secretary Kerry will meet with President Karzai, other Afghan officials, and civil society groups to discuss how we can continue to work together to sustain the progress of the last decade and to advance our shared goal of a secure, stable, prosperous, unified, and sovereign Afghanistan," the statement added.
The two countries are in talks about a bilateral security agreement which may allow as many as 10,000 American troops to remain in Afghanistan after 2014 when the US and Nato combat soldiers are slated to withdraw.
President Hamid Karzai has harshly criticised the US in recent public speeches, accusing it of making deals with the Taliban in order to foment instability and so remain in Afghanistan after 2014, and also of hidden intentions to mine the country's natural resources.
Kerry's visit came the same day that the US military handed over full control of the only US-run prison in Afghanistan to the Afghan government.
The transfer of oversight for the prison has been repeatedly delayed over disagreements on how to handle some of the prisoners deemed dangerous by the US.
Most recently, the handover was scheduled to take place during the US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel's first trip to Afghanistan earlier this month, but it was cancelled amid American concerns that the Afghans would release prisoners, who would then rejoin insurgent forces.
A deal was finally struck between Hagel and Karzai by phone on Saturday where Karzai reportedly assured that dangerous prisoners would not be released.