WASHINGTON, Nov 18: The Indian Embassy here confirmed on Thursday that it was not renewing the contract of a Washington law firm that lobbies for New Delhi in the US capital.
An embassy spokesman told reporters that the contract for the firm, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, was renewed every month. "Since it made no sense to renew the contract before the election, the November contract was not renewed," the spokesman said.
He denied media reports that the contract had been cancelled because the firm failed to stop the expected sale of sophisticated weapons worth one billion dollars to Pakistan.
India signed a $600,000 a-year contract with the firm in April 2003, to counter Pakistan's influence in the Bush administration as a key US ally in the war on terror.
India already had a similar contract with another firm, Ed von Kloberg's Washington World Group, for a $20,000 a-month fee to place favourable opinion pieces in American newspapers.
Akin Gump's Tom Foley, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives and Ambassador to Japan, heads a lobbying team that includes former New York Congressman Tom Paxon and Daniel Spiegel, a Clinton appointee to the United Nations in Geneva.
Their job was to ensure that the Congress and the US opinion-makers got a positive image of India on issues like international terror, promoting human rights and nuclear non-proliferation.
On Wednesday, the Pentagon proposed selling Pakistan an arms package that includes Raytheon Co and Lockheed Martin Corp's anti-tank missiles, machineguns and ground surveillance aircraft valued at over $1 billion if all options are exercised.
The package, which must be approved by the Congress if the arms are requested by Pakistan, includes eight Lockheed Martin P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft, valued at $970 million, for monitoring its borders.
Raytheon Co could sell more than 2,000 TOW-2A wire-guided anti-armour missiles valued at $82 million and an additional $155 million of Phalanx machineguns mounted on vessels designed to shoot down aircraft and missiles.
"This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the US by helping improve the security of a friendly nation that continues to be a key ally in the global war on terrorism," the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.
The Raytheon weapons will be produced by the company's Tucson, Arizona, facility. The P-3C aircraft would be assembled at Lockheed's Greenville, South Carolina, plant.
The Pentagon has notified Congress about three proposed arms deals with Pakistan including the sale of eight P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft valued at up to $970 million.
