US govt ignores India's protest, justifies decision on F-16s

February 13, 2016 23:20

Notwithstanding India's strong protest, the Obama Administration today justified its move to sell eight F-16 fighters to Pakistan claiming that these jets were "critical" to the country's counter-terrorism operations.

"We support the proposed sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan to assist Pakistan's counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations. Pakistan's current F-16s have proven critical to the success of these operations to date," a State Department official told PTI.

He was responding when referred to the strong objection expressed by India which said it "disagrees" with the rationale presented by the Obama administration.

Earlier in the day, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned US Ambassador to India Richard Verma in New Delhi to convey India's "disappointment" over the US decision.

"We are disappointed at the decision of the Obama administration to notify the sale of F-16 aircraft to Pakistan. We disagree with their rationale that such arms transfers help to combat terrorism. The record of the last many years in this regard speaks for itself," the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

On February 11, the US State Department notified the Congress of its decision to sell eight F-16 to Pakistan worth about USD 700 million. Now all eyes are on the US Congress where there is stiff opposition to giving such military hardware to Pakistan.

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