Karzai to visit US for bilateral talks

KABUL) Afghan President Hamid Karzai has accepted an invitation by his US counterpart Barack Obama to visit the US for talks on cooperation and relations between the two countries, the Afghan embassy in Washington said Tuesday. 

The invitation came during a phone call Obama made to Karzai Tuesday evening to thank the Afghan leader for congratulating Obama’s Nov. 6 re-election victory, according to a press statement from the embassy. 

Obama invited Karzai “to visit the United States at his earliest convenience for talks on continued bilateral cooperation and relations between the two countries, which President Karzai accepted with thanks,” the statement said. 

No date was given for the visit. 

The invitation came as Afghan and US diplomats meet in Kabul on Thursday to begin negotiations on a security pact designed to determine the status of US forces in Afghanistan forces in 2014. 

mxf