The Hindu : U.S. proposes joint military exercises with Pak. in Feb.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 12, 2003

International

International

U.S. proposes joint military exercises with Pak. in Feb.

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Jan. 11. The U.S. Government is reported to have proposed to hold joint military exercises with Pakistan next month, according to the Pakistan English daily, Dawn.

In a front-page report the paper has said that the proposed exercise would involve as many as 1500 U.S. Marines.

Quoting informed sources the daily has said that the U.S. request for the joint military exercises was communicated to the Pakistan last month.

The date proposed for what could be the largest war games so far between the two countries is Feb. 22.

It said the proposed exercises would involve all three services. ``The exercises would basically involve onshore landing supported by air and ground forces,'' it quoted a senior official as saying.

However the Inter Service Public Relations Chief, Rashid Qureshi has told the daily that ``we have an ongoing programme of military cooperation with the United States under which a series of joint exercises are to be held. But there are no Army exercises with the U.S. forces scheduled in the month of February.''

The daily quoted an unidentified U.S. embassy spokesman as saying that after the September 11, 2001 the United States and Pakistan had resumed an active programme of joint military exercises.

When questioned about dates, scale and duration of the proposed exercises the U.S. embassy spokesman told the paper that ``these are all topics of ongoing discussions at the current time.

The U.S. and Pakistan governments are continuing to plan several future exercises between the two militaries.''

The paper said Pakistan observers and analysts remained intrigued over the time chosen for the exercises by the U.S. ``Around this time either a war would be raging against Iraq or would be about to start,'' it quoted one commentator who questioned the objective of 1500 Marines in the North Arabian Sea at a critical and sensitive time for Pakistan.

``These exercises would signal that Pakistan is on board and the U.S. has its tacit support at a time when the Pakistan Government would be under tremendous domestic pressure,'' the political observer has been quoted as saying.

The last exercises were held in mid-October 2002 and they lasted two weeks.

These were small-scale `company-level' exercises in which around 100 to 150 U.S. military personnel had participated.

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