The political reconciliation process of Afghanistan encountered setbacks in 2012. With the approaching of the 2014-2015 election year, all political factions were preparing for the election actively, and the activities of political parties were also on the rise. The security situation of Afghanistan remained to be stabilized, the terrorist and violent actions were still rampant, the risk of extremist forces headed by Taliban staging a comeback still existed, and the local political forces were surging. The third phase of the transfer of defense from NATO to the Afghani government approached the completion by the end of 2012, the mission of the international security troops led by NATO gradually changed from military combat to training and assistance, while the Afghani government continued to negotiate with concerned parties over the form and scope of foreign military participation after 2014. The reconstruction of the Afghani economy, in spite of its tentative progress, had a bleak and worrisome prospect owing to weak infrastructure and oversized reliance on external factors. In foreign relations, on the one hand, Afghanistan actively developed it relations with Western countries to win support and aids. On the other hand, it also moved to strengthen ties with neighboring countries which led to the building of momentum for regional cooperation. With the signing of the Agreement on Strategic Partnership, the Sino-Afghani relationship entered a new phase of development. Afghanistan became an observer state of SCO in 2012. <<