ISLAMABAD, 14 August 2003 — Pakistan yesterday lashed out at a US decision to let Israel sell a long-range radar warning system to India, saying it would undermine hopes of establishing a regional arms balance.
The United States, which counts Pakistan as a key ally in its 20-month war on terror, confirmed Monday that it had given Israel the green light to sell Phalcon Airborne Early Warning System (AEWS) to India.
The Phalcon, worth $1 billion, is an Israeli-developed long-range radar warning and control system carried in a Russian Ilyushin-76 cargo plane.
“Pakistan deplores this decision of the US government,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said in a statement received yesterday.
“This sale would further accentuate conventional asymmetries as well as adversely affect the delicate strategic balance in South Asia.”
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said Washington’s earlier objections to the transfer had been allayed by recent peace moves between Pakistan and India.
“That’s why we’ve informed the two governments that we have no objections to that transfer,” Reeker said in Washington.
But Pakistan said Washington’s approval of the transfer would “enhance India’s arrogance and its intransigence in refusing to resolve differences.”
“The introduction of new sophisticated systems in South Asia at this juncture, would destabilize the existing strategic balance with far-reaching security implications for the region,” Khan said.
After a 20-month chill the two sides are engaged in a slow reconciliation process following India’s agreement in April agreed to mend relations with Pakistan. Despite restoration of ambassadors and a cross border bus service, they have not yet resumed bilateral talks.
Khan said Washington’s approval of the Phalcon transfer was “contrary to the avowed US objectives of ensuring durable peace and stability in South Asia,” and urged it to avoid encouraging an arms race on the subcontinent.
