Karzai to attend Winter Olympic ceremony in Russia

KABUL (Pajhwok): President Hamid Karzai will visit Russia in the near future to attend the opening ceremony for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, his office said on Thursday.

For the first time, Russia will be hosting the Winter Olympic Games, which are scheduled to be played from Feb. 7 to 22 in Sochi city of Krasnodar.

The Sochi Olympic Park will be built along the Black Sea coast in the Imeretinskaya Valley, where all ice venues will be built anew.

A statement from the Presidential Palace said Karzai agreed to travel to Sochi during a meeting with Russian Ambassador Zamir Kabulov.

Bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Russia, the Afghan reconciliation process and the Kabul-Washington Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) came up for discussion.

International troops’ future presence in Afghanistan and Karzai’s visit to Russia were also discussed at the meeting, the statement added.

The ambassador conveyed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s best wishes to Karzai. “Putin is looking forward to your participation in the Winter Olympics opening ceremony,” Kabulov was quoted as saying. 

Assuring Kabul of continued support from Moscow, the diplomat said his country stoutly backed the Afghan-led peace campaign.

Karzai, who stressed Russia’s contribution to efforts for peace in Afghanistan and the region at large, will also meet Putin on issues of mutual interest.

mud

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