WASHINGTON, May 25: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said that Afghanistan and Pakistan have close friendly relations. “Friendship and economic cooperation are two things in which both the countries should concentrate and consolidate their relations,” he stated in response to a question at a speech at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) on Tuesday evening.

The topic of his speech was ‘The US-Afghan Partnership,’ and a large number of academia, student scholars and faculty members of the Johns Hopkins University attended. The address was co-sponsored by W.P. Carey Forum of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute.

He told the audience that “we consider Pakistan as our second home,” in fact, it was Pakistan which had “provided refuge to millions of Afghans” during the Soviet invasion of Kabul in 1979.

He called upon Pakistan to further expand the bilateral economic cooperation to the advantage of both the nations. “It is imperative to take no other road but that of economic cooperation.”—AFP