Karzai tries to allay Pak concern over Indo-Afghan pact

He asserted that a strategic partnership with India and talks for a similar deal with the United States do not threaten his countrys neighbors.Pakistan had reacted angrily to the India deal announced last month that many in Islamabad fear would increase its archenemys influence in Afghanistan.The pact, the first Afghanistan has signed with any country, included provisions for India to help train and equip Afghan security forces.Some feared Pakistan could respond by ramping up its support for Afghan insurgents to ensure that its own influence in its neighboring country did not wane.Karzai told leaders of South Asian nations at a regional summit in the Maldives that the India agreement along with talks it was holding with the United States for another strategic partnership were intended to promote peace.I wish to reassure our neighbors ... that none of our partnerships we forge now or in the future shall pose a threat to our neighbors or to our region, he said.