is the report below the one you are referring to ? Reuters is a news agency — its accuracy and inaccuracy is dependent on the reporter. Is there any other reuters report written by someone else not a Pakistani ?
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India Top Stories – Reuters
Reuters
Pakistan seeks Swedish radar system to match India
Wed Jul 14, 4:39 AM ET
By Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan, concerned over nuclear rival India’s plans to acquire a strategic radar system from Israel, is seeking a similar system from Sweden.
Air Commodore Sarfraz Ahmed Khan, spokesman for the Pakistan Air Force, said talks were underway with Sweden over the purchase of an Airborne Early Warning System, but no final decision had been taken.
A Swedish embassy spokesman confirmed that the matter came up for discussion when Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf visited Stockholm last week.
He said a Swedish parliamentary commission, which handles defence-related deals, had approved the sale of the radar system and it was now up to Pakistani authorities to decide.
“I can’t say at what stage it’s at, but the negotiations have been going on for quite some time,” he told Reuters.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan and India have continued to focus on building their military capabilities despite a warming of ties since they went to the the brink of a fourth war in 2002.
News of Pakistan’s negotiations with Sweden comes after India announced one of its highest peacetime hikes in annual defence expenditure last week, saying it was needed to honour a slew of arms contracts.
ISRAELI DEAL
These included a deal signed with Israel — which has emerged as India’s second biggest arms supplier after Russia — to mount Phalcon radar systems on a Russian-made aircraft to enable the Indian Air Force to pry deep into Pakistani airspace.
Pakistan, which itself raised its spending on defence by seven percent for the financial year from July 1, said the sharp increase in India’s defence spending could trigger an arms race.
Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said on Monday the scale of the increase by India was not justified, given recent bilateral peace moves and talks between India and China, which also have been traditional rivals.
Pakistan has long relied on China for defence purchases to counter any threat from India.
Now a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terror, Pakistan argues that Washington should assist it in correcting its conventional imbalance of forces with India.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is due to arrive in Islamabad on Wednesday and local newspapers said he would be told Pakistan needed more help from Washington.
“Pakistan badly needs equipment for its armed forces and the U.S. assistance should be forthcoming in this regard,” the News newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying.
Diplomats say Armitage is expected to encourage Pakistan’s peace process with India, aside from discussing the war on terror and cooperation to purge the Afghan-Pakistan border area of Taliban and al Qaeda militants.
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