NEW DELHI, Oct 5: A day after signing a strategic partnership agreement with New Delhi, Afghan President Hamid Karzai sought to assure Islamabad on Wednesday that it had nothing to fear from the pact.

Pakistan is a “twin brother” and India a “great friend”, he was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying in an interaction with a Delhi-based think tank.

Winding up his two-day visit to New Delhi, Mr Karzai insisted there was “nothing new” in the agreement and that India and Afghanistan had only “put in words what we have been doing all these years”.

He said neither India nor Afghanistan intended the strategic partnership to go beyond the two countries.

“Pakistan is a twin brother, India is a great friend. The agreement that we signed yesterday with our friend will not affect our brother,” Mr Karzai said after delivering the Third R. K. Mishra Memorial lecture organised by the Observer Research Foundation.

“The signing of the strategic partnership with India is not directed against any country. It is not directed against any other entity,” he said, adding this was for Afghanistan to benefit from the strength of India.

In his address, he said India and Afghanistan had been engaged for past few years during which India has offered over 2,000 scholarships for Afghan students, built roads and the Zaranj-Delaram Highway, raised power transmission lines from North Afghanistan to Kabul and built the Parliament building.

“This is all strategic. Yesterday, we only put in words what we have been doing all these years,” the president said. Under the first such pact between the two countries, India will train Afghan army and other security personnel, the PTI said.

Noting that India had never said “no” to anything that his country wanted, Mr Karzai said: “Afghanistan will not only not forget this but remain grateful to India forever.”