page_title: Presidency of Hamid Karzai
section_title: Foreign relations
hierarchical_section_title: Presidency of Hamid Karzai / President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan / Foreign relations
caption_attribution_description: President Barack Obama (center) with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari during a US-Afghan-Pakistan Trilateral meeting in Cabinet Room.
context_page_description: The Karzai administration was the government of Afghanistan under President Hamid Karzai, who became the head of state of Afghanistan in December 2001 after the Taliban government was overthrown. Karzai was appointed at the 2002 Loya Jirga as the Interim President of the Afghan Transitional Administration. After the 2004 Afghan presidential election, he became the President of Afghanistan.
context_section_description: Karzai's relations with the United States were the strongest, because the U.S. was the leading nation helping to rebuild Afghanistan. The United States helped put him in office in late 2001 to lead his nation. Karzai's relations with Pakistan were also strong, especially with Pakistan's Awami National Party (ANP). In December 2007, Karzai and his delegates travelled to Islamabad, Pakistan, for a usual meeting with Pervez Musharraf on trade ties and intelligence sharing between the two Islamic states. Karzai also met and had a 45-minute talk with Benazir Bhutto on the morning of 27 December, hours before her trip to Liaquat National Bagh, where she was assassinated after her speech. After Bhutto's death, Karzai called her his sister and a brave woman who had a clear vision "for her own country, for Afghanistan, and for the region – a vision of democracy, prosperity, and peace." In September 2008, Karzai was invited on a special visit to witness the swearing in ceremony of Asif Ali Zardari, who became the new President of Pakistan. Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have improved since PPP members Zardari and Yousaf Raza Gillani took office. The two nations often make contacts with one another concerning the war on terrorism and trade. Pakistan even allowed NATO forces stationed in Afghanistan to launch attacks on illegal militant groups in Pakistan. This was something strongly opposed by the previous government of Pakistan. The two states finally signed into law the long awaited Afghanistan–Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement in 2011, which among other things allow shipment truck to travel from one state to the other.
  Although the U.S. and others often charge that Iran is meddling in Afghanistan's affairs, Karzai stated that Iran is a friend despite Iranian-made weapons being found in his country.
  We did interdict a shipment, without question the Revolutionary Guard's core Quds Force, through a known Taliban facilitator. Three of the individuals were killed... 48 122 millimetre rockets were intercepted with their various components... Iranians certainly view as making life more difficult for us if Afghanistan is unstable.  We don't have that kind of relationship with the Iranians. That's why I am particularly troubled by the interception of weapons coming from Iran.  But we know that it's more than weapons; it's money; it's also according to some reports, training at Iranian camps as well. – General David Petraeus, Commander of US-NATO forces in Afghanistan, 16 March 2011
  In 2007, Karzai said that Iran, so far, has been a helper in the reconstruction process. On 5 August 2007, Karzai was invited to Camp David in Maryland, USA, for a special meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush. In October 2007, Karzai again rejected Western accusations against Iran, stating, "We have resisted the negative propaganda launched by foreign states against the Islamic Republic, and we stress that aliens' propaganda should not leave a negative impact on the consolidated ties between the two great nations of Iran and Afghanistan." Karzai added, "The two Iranian and Afghan nations are close to each other due to their bonds and commonalities, they belong to the same house, and they will live alongside each other for good." However, just a year prior Karzai warned that, "Iran, Pakistan, and others are not fooling anyone."
  If they don't stop, the consequences will be ... that the region will suffer with us equally. In the past we have suffered alone; this time everybody will suffer with us.... Any effort to divide Afghanistan ethnically or weaken it will create the same thing in the neighboring countries. All the countries in the neighborhood have the same ethnic groups that we have, so they should know that it is a different ball game this time. --Hamid Karzai, 17 February 2006
  Some international criticism has centered around the government of Karzai in early 2009 for failing to secure the country from Taliban attacks, systemic governmental corruption, and most recently, widespread claims of electoral fraud in the 2009 Afghan presidential
caption: Karzai with US President Barack Obama and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari during a US-Afghan-Pakistan Trilateral meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C.
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