India activates lobby in Washington: Drive against sale of F-16s
By Our Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Dec 14: India, which last week urged US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld not to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, has now activated its lobby on Capitol Hill to prevent the possible sale.
In a letter sent this week to US lawmakers, the Congressional Caucus of India asked them to join a campaign to prevent Pakistan from acquiring the aircraft.
The letter is written by the newly-elected Democratic co-chair of the caucus, Congressman Gary Ackerman, and its expected Republican co-chair, Congresswoman Ilena Ros-Lehtinen, and urges US lawmakers to join them in writing to President Bush to prevent the proposed sale.
Already more than a dozen US lawmakers have put their signatures on the letter and the Caucus says it expects to collect close to 100 signatures. The caucus is trying to win over both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in an effort to convince Mr Bush that both the parties are opposed to the sale.
Last week, India took up the matter with Mr Rumsfeld, who was visiting New Delhi, and warned him that providing F-16s to Pakistan would sour Indo-US relations. Indian lobbies in the US, however, were further alarmed by reports that Mr Bush discussed the sale of up to 25 of the fighter jets with President Musharraf when they met at the White House on Dec 4.
Although after their meeting both the presidents said that so far no decision had been taken on that issue, the Indians are taking no chances. In New Delhi, Foreign Minister Natwar Singh told the Indian parliament that India would use all its resources to oppose the sale and in Washington, the Indian embassy activated its lobbyists, particularly those on the Hill.
The Indian caucus's proposed letter for President Bush re-emphasizes New Delhi's position that the sale will squander an opportunity to build a strong relationship that the United States needs with India.
Referring to India as "a growing world power with which we have common strategic interests," the letter said "if the US provides F-16s to Pakistan, planes inherently capable of delivering nuclear weapons, the message will be that our true strategic partner in South Asia is Pakistan," which will undermine long-term US strategic interests in South Asia.
Urging Mr Bush not to grant the licence for the sale, the letter said while economic assistance to Pakistan was necessary, recent arms sales had "moved further and further from the requirements of the war on terror".
The letter also opposed a $1.3 billion arms package Washington offered to Islamabad last month. The package includes eight P-3C Orion planes to beef up surveillance of its coasts and borders to stop the movement of terrorists and drug smugglers.
Besides the Orion surveillance planes, Pakistan's request for 2,000 TOW-2A anti-armour guided missiles and six Phalanx close-in weapons systems for its warships are also included in the package.
It would be the largest US foreign military sale to Pakistan since sanctions against Islamabad were lifted in late 2001 as a reward for supporting US troops fighting Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan. But the Indian caucus points out: "Since neither Al Qaeda nor the remnants of the Taliban have submarines, armoured fighting vehicles or air planes, we are gravely concerned that the systems being provided to Pakistan are intended to be used against Indian capabilities."
Although the Indian government claims that the US arms sales to Pakistan will unleash "a dangerous arms race" in South Asia, New Delhi has its own list of weapons it wants from Washington.
Top on the list is the latest PAC-3 version of Patriot missiles. The two countries have been involved in a substantive dialogue for supplying the Patriot missiles defence system and Deep Sea Rescue Vehicles to India.
