Pak diverting US military aid to target India

Defence minister A. K. Antony has expressed India’s concern over Pakistan diverting US military aid — meant for the war on terror — to be used against India.

“ While the US is giving these arms to fight terrorists, Pakistan is diverting some portions to use against India,” Antony said in Washington on Tuesday.

Antony raised the issue with US defence secretary Robert Gates. He also expressed concerns about the “ denial of export licenses” to the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

Defence ministry sources in New Delhi said the minister pointed out the continued presence of Indian entities on the US Entity List to the Obama administration.

This debars Indian organisations from accessing any kind of technology from the US. “ The presence of our institutions and laboratories on the US Entity List is somewhat anomalous, given our strengthening relations in other areas of defence,” Antony said.

While thanking Gates for his invitation to visit Washington, Antony said the fact that they were meeting for the second time this year itself was indicative of the measure of importance India attaches to its relations with the US. The minister said New Delhi was looking forward to President Obama’s visit in November this year. He expressed confidence that it would be an important milestone in the strengthening of ties between the two countries.

Antony hoped that the relationship in the area of equipment and technology exchanges would evolve from a buyer-seller relationship to a partnership based on ‘ transfer of technology’, coproduction and joint collaboration in defence projects, with the involvement of Indian industry.