Aid to Pak is directed against us, India tells US

India on Monday said that it has conveyed to the United States that all forms of aid provided to Pakistan is 'invariably directed' against New Delhi and providing more arms to Islamabad will not help the peace process in the region.

"We have told the US that particularly in the case of Pakistan, whatever aid in whatever form has been given to them, is invariably directed against India and this has been emphatically registered with the US government," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna told reporters when asked about US' plans to provide more military aid to Pakistan.

Indicating that arms supply to Pakistan by the US would be a big hurdle in creating peace in the region, Krishna said, "We would like the region to be cleared of any armament competition and we would like the region to be peaceful and sending more arms in the region will certainly not help the process."

He said it was the US' responsibility to ensure that the aid provided by it to any nation was used only for the purpose for which it was sanctioned.

Commenting on a controversial bill relating to women passed by the Afghanistan government recently, the minister said, "You know that India is a civilised nation and you know that it always respects women. We would certainly expect this to be reciprocated by various other countries subject to the law of the land of that country."