October 14, 2004
U.S. Said Set to Move on Pakistan’s Long F – 16 Quest
By REUTERS
Filed at 11:24 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Bush administration is planning to consult Congress on Pakistan’s nearly 15-year quest for advanced F-16 fighter aircraft, a U.S. defense official said on Thursday, in a prelude to what may be a delicate balancing act with rival India.
“It’s a very long involved process that will be taken up with our Congress once they come back after the first of the year,” Rear Adm. Craig McDonald, head of the office of the U.S. defense representative in Pakistan, told a Pentagon-organized conference on security cooperation.
Under U.S. law, Congress must approve government to government arms sales, but any deal with Pakistan could also be influenced by the outcome of the Nov. 2 U.S. elections.
The F-16, which is manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp., has a history that reflects U.S. ups and downs with Pakistan, now a key ally in the U.S. war on terror sparked by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Washington supplied 40 F-16s to Pakistan from 1983 to 1987 when Islamabad helped the United States drive Soviet forces from neighboring Afghanistan.
Deliveries were halted in 1990 after a U.S. law barred military exports because Pakistan was suspected of possessing a “nuclear explosive device.”
In May 1998, Pakistan replied to nuclear tests by India with blasts of its own, leading to more U.S. sanctions. The curbs were overturned days after Sept. 11, when Pakistan enlisted as an ally against Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda movement, blamed for the attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
The head of the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler of the Air Force, told Reuters the Bush administration had not yet made a final decision on whether to sell new F-16s to Pakistan — a move India opposes.
Kohler, whose agency handles government-to-government arms sales, was to visit India this month for what he called a “getting acquainted” visit with defense ministry officials, heads of the armed services and others.
“I’m sure they may bring it up,” he said of India’s opposition to any U.S. decision to transfer F-16s to Pakistan, with which India has fought three wars.
“What the U.S. government wants to make clear to both sides is we have important strategic relationships with both countries,” he said in the interview at his agency’s annual conference on security cooperation. “It’s not that we favor one country over the other. We don’t.”
Kohler described opportunities for greatly expanded U.S.-Indian security cooperation in a range of areas, including missile defense. India has also expressed interest in acquiring U.S. naval helicopters and anti-submarine capabilities, he said.
McDonald cited the possibility the United States might offer a “midlife upgrade,” or major overhaul, of Pakistan’s existing F-16 fleet, a compromise that might placate India.
If Washington opts to transfer F-16s, “it is definitely a reward to Pakistan for its efforts in the war on terror,” said Wade Boese, research director of the private Arms Control Association in Washington.
Other Links:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14216899.htm
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041015/pl_nm/arms_pakistan_usa_dc_1
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October 15, 2004 at 6:43 am