WASHINGTON: The United States has offered to sell armoured vehicles and planes to Pakistan for the first time since the 1965 war between India and Pakistan, sources here said. The sources refused to give details of the weapons, but competent sources said that the deal would also include about 300 armoured vehicles for troop transport, and 18 supersonic F-l04s.

The Nixon administration was proposing to the authorities in Rawalpindi to make an exception in the arms embargo in order to rectify a growing imbalance between the two big Asian countries. The material offered was not very modern, but it could replace some American-made equipment which had become out of date. …

The only exception to the 1965 arms embargo approved by the Pentagon was in 1967, when it decided to supply some spare parts to the Pakistani Army and Air Force. For three years Pakistan has been trying to obtain 200 medium-sized tanks of the M-48 type from the United States. The Johnson administration tried to supply a first batch of 100 tanks through third party countries but pressure in the American Congress thwarted the plan. — Agency

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2020