Camp David, Md. - The once acrimonious relationship between Washington and Kabul largely appeared to be a faded memory here on Monday, as top U.S. officials joined visiting Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in pointing to a "revitalized partnership" and announcing their intent to fund his country's security forces through 2017.

The trading of compliments and expressions of gratitude came on the first day of a weeklong visit by Ghani and his power-sharing chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah. It is their first trip to the United States since elections last year.

"Tragedy brought us together - the tragedy of 9/11," Ghani, standing beside Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, said in a hangar at the rustic Camp David retreat, where they spent the day in meetings. "Now we're creating an enduring partnership."

Carter said the administration would ask Congress to continue funding an Afghan force of 352,000 troops and police officers - at an annual cost of roughly $4 billion - as they take over security from American and NATO troops. Kerry also announced a new development program in which up to $800 million in U.S. aid is linked to government reforms, an incentivized assistance proposed by the Afghans.

Carter and Kerry also said they would resume meetings of joint U.S.-Afghan commissions and forums that haven't met in years because of soured relations during the presidency of Hamid Karzai. By the end of his decade-long rule, Karzai was openly hostile to the United States and accused the Obama administration of bearing responsibility for an upsurge in violence as the number of foreign troops declined.

But that's all in the past, officials said on Monday.

"The United States now has a revitalized partnership with Afghanistan's new unity government," Carter declared.

Ghani and Abdullah met with U.S. officials at Camp David after being ferried to the presidential mountain getaway by four helicopters early on Monday. The American and Afghan men appeared tieless, their shirts open at the neck, symbolic of the fresh start they say the countries are embarking on after more than 13 years of war.

Ghani, who along with Abdullah will meet today with President Barack Obama, spent much of the day offering profuse thanks at every stop, not only to the diplomats and military officers with whom he was speaking but also to the 2,215 American servicemen and women who died fighting in Afghanistan, to the more than 20,000 who were wounded there, to everyone who works in the Pentagon and even to the American taxpayer.

Upon arriving at Camp David, he said "thank you" eight times in a short address, and said it at least as many times in a news conference before departing.

"We are not going to be a burden," Ghani said at the Pentagon, vowing that "we are going to put our house in order."

Although the Obama administration has hailed the military transition in Afghanistan, Ghani's government will remain heavily dependent on foreign assistance for years to come.

Congressional aides expect that lawmakers will support U.S. funding for Afghan security forces this year and next, while the United States maintains a modest troop presence there. But if U.S. forces withdraw by 2017 as planned, they warn, support for equally generous funding beyond that date is uncertain.

"The farther we get away from a robust troop presence, the harder it'll be to make a case for assistance," said a Senate aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

At the White House, Ghani and Abdullah are expected to discuss U.S. troop levels through this year and into 2016.

There are about 10,000 American troops remaining in Afghanistan. Obama has planned to cut troop strength nearly in half by the end of this year, but the continued fighting there has led the Afghans to make the case that any cuts should be more modest.