Russia will help modernize the Afghan army.

President Dmitry Medevedev assured the leadership of Afghanistan in the willingness of Russia to provide military-technical assistance to the armed forces of the country, reports Reuters.
In a letter to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Medvedev said that cooperation in defense field between the two countries will contribute to strengthening security in the region. In addition, the Russian president expressed willingness to develop relations with Afghanistan and other areas.
A message from the Kremlin was a response to a letter from Hamid Karzai, opravlennoe in November 2008. In it he asked the Russian leadership to assist the Afghan army in the modernization of weapons. The Agency said that the exchange of letters took place against the backdrop of growing complaints of Kabul on lack of participation by U.S. and NATO countries in the retooling of Afghan military forces.
According to the press secretary for President Karzai, cooperation between Russia and Afghanistan will mainly deal with technical issues, as armed Afghan army is still a large number of helicopters, tanks and other equipment of Russian origin. The strategic partners of Afghanistan in the field of military construction, he said, remain the United States and NATO.
In the multinational forces in Afghanistan are now about 70 thousand troops. To strengthen the fight against the Taliban and other terrorist groups, the U.S. plan to increase the number of summer, another 30 thousand people.
At present, even a rough period of withdrawal of the Afghan population is not called. According to the U.S. and its allies, the multinational force should remain in the country until the Afghan army will not be ready for self-promoting peace and security in the country.