The World

By Daniel Dombey

A ride in a C17 cargo plane from Baghdad to Kabul, consultations with Gen David Petraeus, the commander the US is pinning its hopes on in Afghanistan, and talks with Hamid Karzai the Afghan president who often exasperates his western partners – that’s what made up Robert Gates’ Thursday.

We in the press shared a good part of it. The birds’ eye view from the C17 gave a sense of the inhospitability of Afghanistan, with stunning glimpses of  mountains set in desert wilderness.

At a press session at his headquarters Camp Eggers base we saw Petraeus. He sought refuge in generalities when asked specifics about, for example, his plans for the province of Kandahar.

Then to the presidential palace, which is magnificent with its looming walls and hidden gardens. There Gates and Karzai took questions, after the US defence secretary’s highest ranking meeting of the day.

Gates said Karzai signed on to the same principles as him on the importance of combatting corruption. Karzai said Gates agreed with him on the importance of preserving Afghan sovereignty in anti-graft probes.

The two men had different accounts of a Nato airstrike in which, according to Gates, a leading insurgent died, or (Karzai’s) version a member of parliament was wounded and 10 others killed.

It didn’t seem exactly like a meeting of minds.

Daniel Dombey, the FT’s US diplomatic correspondent, blogs from Iraq, where Robert Gates, US defence secretary, has begun a trip to mark the end of the US combat mission in the country.