Mr Ivanov reasures India & Pakistan

I nearly laughed out loud when I read the headline:

“RUSSIA WILL NOT CONTRIBUTE TO ARMS RACE IN INDIA OR PAKISTAN”

And here’s the article, I kind of started to understand what he’s saying a little better after reading it.

“ISLAMABAD, 15 June 2003. /from RIA Novosti correspondent/. Russia does not intend in any form or manner to contribute to arms race in India or Pakistan, Russia’s Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told a press-conference in Islamabad.

Responding to a question whether Russia was going to supply weapons to Pakistan to counterbalance its arms exports to India, Igor Ivanov pointed out that “the formulation of the question itself suggested a military resolution of the conflict between the two countries”. “In our opinion, however, there is no alternative to a political settlement of the existing problems,” stressed the Minister.

“The current situation is the outcome of the well-known “cold war” practices when the Soviet Union was supplying weapons to India while the United States and some other countries were arming Pakistan,” Igor Ivanov said. According to him, Moscow is interested in “finding a political solution to the problem”. The Russian Foreign Minister believes that every effort ought to be taken to avoid further escalation of military tension at the Indian-Pakistani border.”