US State Secretary Antony Blinken on Tuesday defended military sales to Pakistan after criticism from growing US partner India, which considers itself the target of Islamabad\u2019s F-16 planes.<\/p>\n
Blinken met in the US capital with India\u2019s foreign minister a day after separate talks with Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.<\/p>\n
The US-Pakistan alliance, born out of the Cold War, has frayed over Islamabad\u2019s relationship with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
The top US diplomat defended a $450 million F-16 deal for Pakistan approved earlier in September, saying the package was for the maintenance of Pakistan\u2019s existing fleet.<\/p>\n
The package does not include the sale of any new capabilities, weapons, or munitions and is aimed at the sustenance of Pakistan Air Force\u2019s F-16 programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are not new planes, new systems, new weapons. It\u2019s sustaining what they have,\u201d the US state secretary told a news conference with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.<\/p>\n
\u201cPakistan\u2019s programme bolsters its capability to deal with terrorist threats emanating from Pakistan or from the region. It\u2019s in no one\u2019s interests that those threats be able to go forward with impunity, and so this capability that Pakistan has had can benefit all of us in dealing with terrorism,\u201d Blinken said.<\/p>\n
He added that the US had a \u201cresponsibility and an obligation to whomever we provide military equipment to make sure that it\u2019s maintained and sustained. That\u2019s our obligation\u201d.<\/p>\n
When asked to elaborate on the terrorism threats and the need for F-16s to counter them, Blinken said: \u201cThere are clear terrorism threats that continue to emanate from Pakistan itself as well as from neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd whether it is TTP (Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan) that may be targeting Pakistan, whether it\u2019s ISIS-Khorasan, whether it\u2019s Al-Qaeda, I think the threats are clear, well-known, and we all have an interest in making sure that we have the means to deal with them. And that\u2019s what this is about.\u201d<\/p>\n
To another question about his discussion with FM Bilawal on improving ties between Pakistan and India, his advice to Pakistan in this regard and the latter\u2019s response, Blinken said it would not be appropriate to \u201ccharacterise Pakistan\u2019s response\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore broadly, we always encourage our friends to resolve their differences through diplomacy, through dialogue. That hasn\u2019t changed. It won\u2019t change. It would not be appropriate for me to characterise Pakistan\u2019s response, just as I wouldn\u2019t characterise our friend\u2019s response in a similar conversation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Jaishankar did not criticise Blinken in public but on Sunday, speaking at a reception for the Indian community in the United States, he said of the US position, \u201cYou\u2019re not fooling anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor someone to say, I\u2019m doing this because it\u2019s for counter-terrorism when you\u2019re talking of an aircraft like the capability of the F-16, everybody knows where they are deployed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery honestly, it\u2019s a relationship that has neither ended up serving Pakistan well nor serving American interests well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Previously, the Indian defence minister had also conveyed reservations over the F-16 deal with his counterpart in Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cI conveyed India\u2019s concern at the recent US decision to provide a sustenance package for Pakistans F-16 fleet,\u201d Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had written on Twitter following what he called a \u201cwarm and productive\u201d telephone conversation with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US State Secretary Antony Blinken on Tuesday defended military sales to Pakistan after criticism from growing US partner India, which considers itself the target of Islamabad\u2019s F-16 planes. Blinken met in the US capital with India\u2019s foreign minister a day after separate talks with Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. The US-Pakistan alliance, born out of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1785,10835,10834,20],"class_list":{"0":"post-286183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-antony-blinken","9":"tag-arms-sales","10":"tag-indian-criticism","11":"tag-pakistan"},"yoast_head":"\n