December 2, 2001	Sunday	Ramazan 16, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 1: Pakistan and Iran have decided to enhance military cooperation for manufacturing of small arms, ammunitions, artillery tank ammunition, propellant and various kinds of explosives.

“Both countries have resolved their differences over Afghanistan and are now ready for increased military collaboration in various fields,” said Chairman Pakistan Ordinance Factories (POF) Wah, Lt-Gen Abdul Qayyum.

Talking to Dawn here on Saturday the said that Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharazi and Iranian deputy defence minister Admiral Nasalpak have had extremely productive meetings with President Pervez Musharraf and foreign minister Abdul Sattar on Friday that led to their renewed understanding for political and military cooperation.

“Whatever misunderstanding existed between the two countries on Afghanistan has been removed and we are ready for increased cooperation in the defence field. Today, Iran better comprehends our point of view and as such we have no differences now,” Gen Qayyum said.

However, he said that increased military cooperation would not lead to any joint venture in the nuclear field. “I must clarify here that our military cooperation will be limited to the manufacturing of tactical weapons and not nuclear weapons,” he added.

He said that Iranian deputy defence minister had visited POF Wah on Friday and was briefed about the whole range of products being manufactured according to international standards and western specifications. “The Iranian deputy defence minister told me that he never knew that Pakistan was making such quality weapons,” the chairman POF added.

Responding to a question Gen Qayyum said: “There exists a great deal of goodwill for increasing military cooperation,” he said adding that improvement in political relations will lead to greater defence collaboration between the two sides.

To a question he said that POF was currently exporting arms and ammunitions to 30 countries, including United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Singapore and Mayanmar. “Last year we earned US$30 million through exports,” Gen Qayyum said.