NEW DELHI, March 7: Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai has expressed the hope New Delhi would consider extending the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline to India.

Addressing a business meeting, Mr Karzai said that India should join the project (for which an agreement has been signed by the three countries) and ‘allow the pipeline to come here’.

Mr Karzai said he did not see any link between the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We do not see any relation between the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan.” While the United States had troops in Afghanistan, their objective along with forces from other nations was to combat terrorism.

“Afghanistan is far away from Iraq. The United States does not need bases in Afghanistan; our country is too far away,” he added, according to a news report.

Calling the Indian business and industry to come to Afghanistan, Karzai said that the law and order situation was conducive to investment. His country was ready for various kinds of investment from India, he added.

Earlier, India and Afghanistan inked a Preferential Trade Agreement to boost two-way trade. The visiting Afghan president sought increased Indian assistance in the ongoing reconstruction effort in his war-ravaged country.

New Delhi has assured Kabul of $70 million aid for the construction of the 230km Zarang-Delaram highway that will connect the Iranian port of Chahbahar to the main Kabul-Kandahar-Herat highway.

India has gifted an Airbus aircraft to Afghanistan with President Hamid Karzai expressing gratitude for the gesture which, he said, would add value to the bilateral relations and help in the process of reconstruction of the country.

Air India gifted a third Airbus plane to Afghanistan’s Ariana airlines as part of New Delhi’s aid package to rebuild the war-torn country.

“It would help the Afghan airline to perform better and go many places,” Karzai told reporters.

Ariana lost nearly all its fleet during the country’s two decades of war and was grounded by UN sanctions in the last two years of the Taliban regime.

Karzai later flew by helicopter to the northern Indian hill station of Shimla. —APP / AFP