WASHINGTON, Jan 17: The United States took the first step towards resuming arms deliveries to India on Thursday by signing an agreement under which the two countries would protect technology secrets in any weapons deal between them.

The agreement, signed by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and visiting Indian defence minister George Fernandes, came at a time of mounting tension between India and Pakistan.

Thursday’s accord would protect technology secrets involved in any arms deals between the US and India and analysts saw it as paving the way for renewed US arms deliveries.

“Today, Minister Fernandes and I signed a US-India bilateral general security of military information agreement, paving the way for greater technology cooperation between the United States and India,” Rumsfeld told a joint Pentagon news conference with Fernandes.

“We discussed the good progress that our two countries are making in our security relationships,” Rumsfeld added.

“In the coming months, we have an ambitious schedule of meetings on counter-terrorism, on service-to-service exercises, further strengthening the friendship and cooperation between the world’s two largest democracies.”

Fernandes also expressed pleasure.

“I am very happy that today ... we have been able to revive that (military) relationship, and we look forward to much greater cooperation between the United States military and also procuring items that we need to procure from here,” Fernandes said.

He noted, for example, that the two countries had begun a light combat aircraft project almost two decades ago and “we (India) need the engines for that.”

“We were to have gone ahead together on this, but then we parted company. And now we have again joined hands,” Fernandes told reporters.

Fernandes said there was no truth to reports that the United States had pressed Israel to halt transfer of major weapons to India until tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad were reduced.

But one senior US official told Reuters that Rumsfeld and Fernandes had discussed the issue and that India had no objections to Washington’s overtures to Israel “on the timing” of such transfers.—Reuters

Opinion

Editorial

Paying the price
Updated 18 Apr, 2025

Paying the price

Pakistan is trapped in a relentless cycle of climate volatility.
Political solution
18 Apr, 2025

Political solution

THOUGH the BNP-M may have ended its 20-day protest sit-in outside Quetta on Wednesday, the core issues affecting...
Grave desecration
18 Apr, 2025

Grave desecration

THE desecration of 85 Muslim graves at a cemetery in Hertfordshire in the UK is a distressing act that deserves the...
Double-edged sword
Updated 17 Apr, 2025

Double-edged sword

While remittances have provided critical support to current account, they have also been a double-edged sword.
Besieged people
17 Apr, 2025

Besieged people

DESPITE all the talk about becoming a ‘hard’ state, Pakistan is still looking incredibly soft when it comes to...
Deadly zealotry
Updated 17 Apr, 2025

Deadly zealotry

Murdering people and attacking firms is indefensible and only besmirches the Palestinian cause.