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India has expressed concern over US arms supply to Pakistan: Nirupama Rao | Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao has told media persons here that the Indian Government has expressed its concern
to Washington over US arms supply to Pakistan. Addressing a press conference here last night, Rao said Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh has expressed his
concern over the misuse of arms supplied to Pakistan by the United States. Rao,
who is accompanying Dr. Singh on his four-day visit to Washington, said that until
Pakistan takes meaningful action on tackling India's concerns on terrorism, bilateral
relations couldn't be normalised. "Peace with Pakistan but it is difficult to
carry forward the process of normalization unless and until of course Pakistan
is able to move meaningfully on tackling our concerns about terrorism directed
against India," Rao said. She confirmed that during his meetings with various
American dignitaries, Dr. Singh has voiced concern over US arms supply to Pakistan
and highlighted the fact that these arms can be used against India. "The issue
of arms supply to Pakistan and assistance in that area from the United States
was also mentioned in the conversation and attention was drawn to our concerns
that such equipments have been used against our country in the past and that we
continued such worries today and for the future also, " Rao said. "Yes, on Pakistan,
the US is receptive and sensitive to India's concerns regarding Pakistan, its
inability to curb terrorism emanating from its borders. The cooperation we have
had with the Americans has been very good, we have expressed our concerns with
candour about Pakistan misusing aid that it gets from the US against India," said
Rao. "We have been very specific in our articulation about misuse of aid, especially
the military aid that Pakistan gets. The US is also fully aware of our position
that we cannot begin the composite dialogue process till such a time that Pakistan
delivers on the Mumbai issue," she added. Rao underscored India's mounting exasperation
over lack of adequate action by Pakistan against the Mumbai terrorists and the
larger anti-India terror infrastructure. "For this dialogue to regain momentum,
we will need to have progress by Pakistan to take action against terrorism," Rao
said after Singh's meeting with several Congressmen and Defense Secretary Robert
Gates. "We need to have a closure. We have to take into account the public mood,
the mood in the Parliament; a composite view has to be taken. The Americans are
aware about all this. There has been no pressure on us at all," Rao said. Some
200 million dollars worth of equipment and services are already in the pipeline
for Pakistan has started to arrive, but American officials have declined to provide
full details, saying many of the more sophisticated items were classified. U.S.
military aid is meant to help Pakistan mount a long-awaited ground offensive against
Taliban fighters in their South Waziristan stronghold along the border with Afghanistan,
where U.S. and NATO forces are fighting a growing insurgency. The Indian Foreign
Secretary also said that the situation in Afghanistan also came up for discussion
between Dr. Singh and the senators, House representatives and think tanks. She
said that India had explained that it is ready to help build Afghanistan. There
was, however, no mention about consulates, and the overall response from the American
side was that Indian opinion on Afghanistan was sought, said Rao. "Both India
and United States could work together to help advance development and prosperity
for the people of Afghanistan," Rao said. India is one of the biggest donors in
Afghanistan and its influence -- 1.2 billion dollars in aid towards targets ranging
from highway construction to new consulates -- is viewed with suspicion by many
actors in the region -- from Islamist militants to Pakistan. Rao said Dr. Singh
underlined his government's commitment to Afghanistan, and added that India did
not see Afghanistan as "a theatre of influence." Rao also said that India was
not looking at finalising negotiations with the US on a pact on reprocessing of
spent fuel, a key step in implementation of the nuclear deal, during summit talks
between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama. "As far as reprocessing
talks are concerned, these are ongoing and we were not looking at finalising them
tomorrow. In any case, it is a ongoing process and as I mentioned to you and that
these talks have progressed well and, there are a number of issues that were being
discussed between the American side and our side and our experts have been engaged
very intensively in these discussions and I am happy to report that much progress
has been made and we will be finalising these issues very shortly, "she said. |
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