Hamid Karzai on Afghanistan's Moment of Reckoning: Highlights

• Very happy to be in India once again
• Challenges that India and Afghanistan face are not of our heritage and values - it is to remove human suffering
  
• Afghanistan like India is an ancient country with a rich heritage and proud history
  
• Afghanistan has been a cross-roads between continents and connected people throughout history
• Today Afghanistan has transformed from a stateless geography to a pluralistic state
• Afghanistan suffered from invasions, foreign interferences, extremism that inflicted massive suffering on our country and society
  
• A generation of forward-looking young Afghans have emerged and thanks a great deal to India having helped us in this regard
  
• We have an independent and very vibrant media, you'll be surprised
  
• Afghanistan today is the home of all Afghans 
• Terrorism remains a serious challenge not only to Afghanistan but the whole region
• Afghanistan like India is a country of panchayats - we call them 'jirgas'
• We will continue to follow a peace process that will allow the Taliban to come back to their own country
• My stance against certain elements of US and NATO presence was principled
  
• Afghanistan wishes to have an enduring partnership with US and our western partners
  
• Security on prosperity depends primarily on the region becoming free of radicalism and terrorism - must address the sources from which forces of terrorism draw their sustenance
• India has participated in every aspect of rebuilding our country
  
• India has been a valued partner in nation-building in Afghanistan
  
• I thank the Prime Minister of India, PM Modi for his continued commitment to Afghanistan and its people
  
• Afghanistan will not allow proxy war between India and Pakistan on its soil - and I'm sure India won't do that
  
• India will be there to educate our children, build dams, not to wage a proxy war against Pakistan - so I'll give a reassurance to Musharraf that he did not worry.
• Pakistan is a very close neighbor of Afghanistan - we have tremendous connectivity, people-to people relations - we're almost like twins..
  
• We will engage with Pakistan as a sovereign, independent state conducting our own foreign policy and that will not be compromised
• The Afghan people would love to be friends with America - but as equals. One very poor and one very rich but that should not reduce the dignity.
• US should have gone to the sanctuaries of terrorism, not Afghanistan
  
• I stood up against the U.S. because I wanted them to correct their behaviour with Afghanistan
  
• I told President Obama they should not be running with the hare and hunting with the hound

Hamid Karzai on relations with India:

• Don't need Indian boots on the ground - as a matter of fact don't need any boots on the ground.
• India is well situated to train our officers, civil services and fulfill Afghanistan's need of military equipment
• India, as any old civilization is, a cautious country - I believe there is more that could be don
• I'm a former president. I have a lot more freedom today but not free to say everything or anything