RAWALPINDI, 28 September — The United States said yesterday it was ready to consider providing more hardware for Pakistan’s military as a reward for its help in the fight against terrorism.
It also promised assistance to enhance the capabilities of Pakistani troops and police in fighting terrorism, including the infiltration of Al-Qaeda fugitives from neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistan sought spare parts for existing weapons as well as major weapons systems during a two-day meeting of the Pakistan-US defense consultative group which ended yesterday. Islamabad asked the United States to provide military hardware, including F-16 fighter jets, to balance its conventional defense capability with India, officials from the two countries said.
It was the forum’s first meeting since the US cut economic and military ties in 1998 over Pakistan’s nuclear tests.
Defense ties have improved dramatically since Pakistan last year pledged its support for the US-led campaign to oust the Al-Qaeda terror group and Taleban from Afghanistan.
A joint statement said working groups had discussed “issues relating to the procurement of US equipment under the Foreign Military Sales program, including major weapons systems and related support for those systems, repair and upgrade of existing systems, the issue of licenses for the import of spares and the resolution of other outstanding issues.”
“Acquisition of US defense stores for improving conventional weapons capabilities were mentioned as a key Pakistani priority ...”
“The US agreed to expedite the resolutions on pending issues and to provide information to Pakistan on the availability of new weapons and systems as soon as possible.”
Pakistan’s delegation leader, Defense Secretary Hamid Nawaz Khan, told a press conference a list of requirements had been handed to the US delegation. It would respond at the forum’s next meeting in Washington in March.
The statement said the decision of both countries “to cooperate closely with each other in the fight against terror has served as the catalyst for rejuvenating the defense consultative group process.”
US Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith said Washington agreed to enhance Pakistan’s capability to deal with terrorism including Al-Qaeda infiltration from Afghanistan. “There are things we can do cooperatively to try to enhance the capabilities of Pakistan to deal with the Al-Qaeda problem,” he said.
“They (terrorists) are a threat to the United States, they are a threat to Pakistan. So we are very interested in doing what we can to build up Pakistan’s capability in this area,” Feith said.
“What’s done by the United States on the Afghan side and Pakistan on its side (of the Pakistan-Afghan border) we would say we had some success but not as much as we would like to see,” Feith said.
Nawaz said that Pakistani forces had struggled to properly patrol the country’s western frontier because so many troops were massed on the eastern border in view of a tense confrontation with rival India.
“Our armed forces are structured basically to take care of the threat from the east,” he said.
“Our western border is 2,500 km long and with this long standoff situation between India and Pakistan, at this point of time, it is not possible for Pakistan to dedicate adequate resources for the western borders,” Nawaz said. “Our capability to monitor the border needs to be enhanced.”
Defense hardware sales were halted under military and economic sanctions first imposed by Washington in October 1990 when it was unable to certify that Pakistan did not possess nuclear weapons.
The US resumed informal military ties after Islamabad provided intelligence as well as air bases and air corridors for the coalition forces operating in Afghanistan.
