Associated Press, WASHINGTON: The United States has agreed to sell about 80 (according to Pakistan News Service) sophisticated F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan, a diplomatically sensitive move that rewards Pakistan for its help in fighting the war on terror, but has angered next-door rival India.
President Bush, who is spending holiday time at his Texas ranch, spoke on the phone today with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who told Bush of his “great disappointment” over the decision, Sanjaya Baru, the prime minister's spokesman said.
Singh said that sales to Pakistan would endanger security in the region, Baru said. New Delhi is worried that arming Pakistan with the advanced jet fighters would tilt the military balance in South Asia and could adversely affect the ongoing peace dialogue between India and Pakistan.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, linked the proposed sales of the planes, manufactured by Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin, directly to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's cooperation after the terror attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
The sale of F-16s will not change the overall balance of military power in the region and are vital to Pakistan's security as Musharaff prosecutes the war on terror, said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Officials at the State Department, explaining the decision further, but only on the basis of anonymity, said India is contemplating a very large purchase of fighter planes, but added that it is up to India to decide which country it will purchase them from.
At a defense seminar in Bangalore, India, the nation's air force chief said the U.S.-built F-16 and France's Mirage jet fighters are among the warplanes India is considering for a purchase of 126 new aircraft. In addition to the Lockheed Martin F-16 and Dassault Aviation's Mirage, New Delhi is also eyeing the Swedish-made Gripen fighter and the Russian MiG range, made by Mikoyan-Gurevich, Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi said.
The State Department officials also said the United States is weighing an expansion of its strategic partnership with India, with cooperation on a range of economic, commercial and security issues, including missile defense. The goal is helping India become a major world power.
Pakistan's information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, hailed the administration's decision as a “good gesture by the United States” and said the transaction would ease anti-American sentiment in the Islamic nation.
“This will fulfill our defense requirements,” he said. “We had been lagging behind (India) in conventional weapons. This will improve the situation.”
The sales to two nuclear countries that have warred over the Kashmir territory could raise eyebrows among U.S. allies in Europe who are under White House pressure not to lift an arms embargo on China. The administration argues that European weapons could contribute to rising tensions between Beijing and Taiwan.
Pakistan struck a deal with the United States to buy the nuclear-capable F-16 fighter jets in the late 1980s, but the agreement was scrapped in the 1990s when Washington imposed sanctions on Islamabad over its nuclear weapons program. Since then, Islamabad, which had paid in advance for the F-16s, has been pressuring Washington to supply the rest of the planes.
The United States had signed a separate $1.3 billion arms package to Pakistan last year.
India had voiced its opposition to the resumption of supply of F-16s to Pakistan during talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she made a whistle-stop tour of South Asia last week.
