Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai met with members of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday (January 9) and discussed "mutual goals" for the two countries.
Republican Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell warmly welcomed Karzai.
"We are proud to have President Karzai back in America to discuss our mutual goals for his country and hope that your discussions with the administrations and members of Congress are fruitful," McConnell said.
Karzai met with McConnell and a few other Senators in the Foreign Relations and Armed Services panels.
"I am very happy to be received today by the honorable Senators and as I just learned some of the honorable Senators are headed along with Senator McConnell to Afghanistan. I'm sorry I am not there to receive them and host them. The trip has just begun and I will be meeting over two days with members of the Senate and the administration, I hope we get back to Afghanistan what the Afghans expect of me to take back to them," he said.
The Afghan President then joked with reporters in the room but declined to answer a question about the number of U.S. troops he would like to see in Afghanistan.
-Reuters
