Thursday, Jun 19, 2003
Thursday, Jun 19, 2003 |
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India & World
By Sridhar Krishnaswami
A media report says the Bush administration has already decided to resume sale of this advanced jet fighter; and the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, was told of this personally when the U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, dropped by for an extraordinary session on June 8. Senior diplomats here reject the contention that Mr. Advani had been informed of the decision by Mr. Rumsfeld. A report in the ``Defence and Foreign Affairs Daily'' of June 13 had made the point that the Defence Secretary personally wanted to inform Mr. Advani of the proposed sale to Pakistan so as to avoid the news reaching the Indian Government ``through less formal channels''. ``That is completely untrue,'' said a senior diplomat. It is generally assumed that the talks between Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Advani covered a range of issues, including global, regional and bilateral military ties. ``This is untrue, that the Americans informed us they were going to supply F-16s to Pakistan,'' the diplomat said. India has stated on many occasions of concerns about supply of weaponry to Pakistan because every time this had happened it had been used against India. But Indian concerns may not be a deterrent to Gen. Musharraf who has been talking about the F-16s for quite sometime now though the Clinton administration fully reimbursed Pakistan for the money it had paid for the delivery of the jets. Reports have persisted that Pakistan is pressing for a newer version of the F-16s, partly on the ground that its current arsenals have long been outclassed by the Indian Air Force. The Bush administration now has a totally different relationship with Pakistan in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. As Pakistan is seen as a staunch ally in the fight against the Al Qaeda, Washington has been holding out ``rewards'', economic and political over the last several months. On the political side, it will be a meeting between the President, George W. Bush and Gen. Musharraf, not at the White House on June 24 but in the Presidential Retreat of Camp David. The issue of F-16s will be one of the many things that Gen. Musharraf will discuss with Mr. Bush. High on the agenda also are writing off debt, market access to Pakistani goods and a complete lifting of all remaining sanctions, especially as it pertains to military sales. Some analysts have been saying that Pakistan is actually being let off the hook easily because of its new-found relationship with this Republican administration. The fact that Gen. Musharraf has not come down as hard as he can on cross-border terrorism aside, critics have pointed to the alleged nuclear-cum-missile nexus between Pakistan and North Korea and progress on democracy as areas where the Bush administration has been quite lenient with Islamabad.
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