Well. Since it is beginning to be social fun here let me post an article… US speeding up military sales (not high tech… that was mentionned somewhere else) and PAF is starting to think about Erieye… Besides the funny point that Armitrage telling in India that Pakistani is supporting violence and telling in Pakistan that India is violating human rights…
US to speed up military aid to Pakistan
By Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad and Ray Marcelo in New Delhi
Published: July 16 2004 5:00 | Last Updated: July 16 2004 5:00
Richard Armitage, the US deputy secretary of state, yesterday pledged to speed up delivery of military equipment to help Pakistan pursue its war against terrorists but urged Islamabad to intensify a crackdown on Islamic militants.
Mr Armitage, concluding a visit to India and Pakistan, said Washington would accelerate its review of a list of military hardware, including helicopters and surveillance equipment, requested by Pakistan earlier this year.
After yesterday’s meeting with Riaz Khokhar, the Pakistani foreign secretary, Mr Armitage said: “The foreign secretary asked for a little speed-up in the process [of military supplies] and that is what we will be able to do. Our business is to deliver as much as we can.”
Since the beginning of this year, Pakistan has sent tens of thousands of troops into its semi-autonomous tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, which hundreds of Taliban militants are believed to be using to mount attacks across the border.
On Wednesday, a senior Pakistani officer repeated Pakistan’s frustrations over its military shortcomings: “We haven’t got any intelligence,” Brigadier Mehmood Shah, head of security in the tribal region, told Reuters. “In fact, we are asking our friends the Americans if they have any from their satellites, because they have better capabilities.”
Mr Armitage urged Pakistan to take a tougher stance against the Taliban, and repeated a charge he made earlier in India that not all the camps in Pakistan used to train militants to launch attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir had been dismantled.
“People are still dying and this is not an acceptable situation,” Mr Armitage had said in New Delhi. “Any level of infiltration is too much as far as we are concerned.”
But in response to Pakistani accusations of grave human rights violations by Indian security forces, he agreed that “there is absolutely no question, there is violence and violation of human rights”.
Western diplomats said these remarks underlined Washington’s balancing act in seeking to encourage both India and Pakistan to pursue the peace process, while recognising their grievances.
Pakistan’s air force officials this week confirmed that Islamabad was also negotiating the purchase of an airborne early warning system from Sweden. A final decision had yet to be made.
This comes in response to a deal signed by India for the purchase of Israel’s “Phalcon” radar system, to be mounted on Russian-made aircraft to improve the Indian Air Force’s ability to carry out surveillance inside Pakistani territory.
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