The Hindu : `Economic package not automatic'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 26, 2003

International

International

`Economic package not automatic'

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington JUNE 25. The Bush administration is making it known that the $3-billion assistance to Pakistan over a five-year period — in rough annual installments of $600 million — is not guaranteed money that is going to flow in automatically. At the same time, Washington is not saying that it is attaching "conditions", particularly in the realm of proliferation, terrorism and democracy.

"I think we're going to have to be satisfied that Pakistan is indeed working vigorously with us in the war against terrorism, is working vigorously to ensure there is no onward proliferation and is moving smartly toward democracy," a senior administration official said.

"I'm not calling those conditions, but let's be realistic; three years down the road, if things are going badly in those areas, it's not going to happen. We're not going to request it; Congress won't appropriate it. And that is a bargain that the Pakistanis are entering into with their eyes wide open," the official said while talking about the Camp David summit meeting between the U.S. President, George W. Bush, and his Pakistani counterpart, Pervez Musharraf.

The Republican administration will have to work with Congress on the five-year $3-billion package to Pakistan for development and security assistance. An additional $120 million has been requested for fiscal 2004 to fund development assistance, health, law enforcement and other programmes.

But the finer details of the $3-billion package are being worked out.

The administration also said that while Mr. Bush was specific enough in saying that the F-16s "won't" be part of this security-economic package, the U.S. is willing to look at requests from Pakistan for upgrades and repairs of the existing fleet of around 32 F-16s.

"... Pakistan has many, many defence needs that need meeting. We're going to be working with them. I think they're going to come in with requests, for example, for upgrades and repairs to their current fleet of F-16s. We'll look at that and we'll talk to them about it. But, frankly, there is just too much other stuff that Pakistan needs right now for us to go into this business of new F-16s," the senior official said.

"With respect to upgrading F-16s, it's something we're perfectly willing to consider... the talks haven't really started yet, so we haven't flushed things out in any great detail. But there is an agreement on our side that that's something that we'd be willing to consider if they pushed us on it," the official said.

He pointed out that the Kashmir issue was discussed at Camp David "at a little bit of length" with Gen. Musharraf stressing that he had moved against cross-border "infiltration"; that he had made sure there were no terrorist camps inside Pakistani Kashmir. The General, according to the official, said that he "badly wanted to see a dialogue between Pakistan and India, that he was actually encouraged by Vajpayee's initial moves; that he himself had tried to reciprocate those moves".

"President Bush encouraged progress towards dialogue, said we too want to see Pakistan and India address their problems together — that if there is a role for us to play as they address their problems together, we're willing to play that role, but that it is fundamentally on the part of Pakistan and India to start moving towards peace together," the official said.

During the press briefing at Camp David, Mr. Bush essentially made the point that while the U.S. was committed to remaining engaged and ready to help, India and Pakistan must arrive at a peaceful solution.

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