Author: Press Trust Of India
Publication: www.expressindia.com
Date: November 25, 2004
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=38831
The supply of arms to Pakistan would
not come in the way of United States having strong and good relations with
India, the State Department has said.
"There should be no question that
you can have good relations with one country and sell arms to another country.
It's not a mutually exclusive proposition, and nor should it be," State
Department deputy spokesman J. Adam Ereli told reporters in Washington
on Wednesday.
There is no contradiction between
having strong, good relations with India and meeting the Defence needs
of other countries through the sale of US arms, he said.
"Our arms sales policy, I think,
is clear, governed by US interests and congressional legislation, it's
transparent, it's publicly notified, and we've done that in the case of
the recent transactions in question," he said.
When a correspondent said that US
arms have in the past been used by Pakistan only against India, the spokesman
said, "I'm not interested in getting in a debate with Indian officials
about US arms sales policy."
The Pentagon had recently notified
the Congress of a possible 1.3 billion dollar arms package for Pakistan,
including eight P-3C Orion planes, in the largest US foreign military sale
to the country since sanctions against Islamabad were lifted in late 2001.
