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Pakistan chides India for reportedly blocking F-16 deal with Belgium
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Thursday criticized India's defence minister for claiming in a news report that Belgium had decided not to sell used F-16 fighter jets to Islamabad after a request from India. "I don't know how authentic these claims are but India should stop opposing to our legitimate defence needs," Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told reporters in Islamabad.His comments, aired on Pakistan's private channel Geo, followed an Indian television report quoting Indian Defence Minister Parnab Mukherjee as saying that Belgium had cancelled the sale of the U.S-made fighters to Pakistan "given the sensitivity of the geo-political situation in South Asia". Pakistan sought last year to buy the fighters to augment its existing fleet of F-16 jets, which are capable of carrying all types of nuclear warheads. "India's huge defence shopping spree has created an imbalance in conventional weapons which must be corrected," Khan added. India had also expressed concern over reports that the United States was considering selling F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan under a 1.2-billion-dollar defence package it recently approved in return for Islamabad's crucial support to the ongoing war on terror. "India is buying all sorts of weapons from the United States, Russia, South Africa, France etc., but on the other hand it was trying to prevent Pakistan from buying even the bare minimum defence requirements," Khan said. He questioned India's "huge defence purchases" amid the ongoing peace dialogue with Pakistan and New Delhi's efforts to improve its ties with neighbouring China, with whom it fought a war in 1962.
Posted by: Steve White 2004-12-24 |
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