India spurns US arms
March 30, 2005
India has said thanks but no thanks to the US offer to sell Delhi its F-16 warplanes. Washington made the gesture in a bid to placate India after George Bush last week broke with 15 years of policy by deciding to sell Pakistan the same high-performance aircraft. Pakistan has been after these F-16s for years and the sale is clearly a reward for President Pervez Musharraf for his support for America's "war on terror". But an editorial in the International Herald Tribune takes the Bush administration to task for its initial decision and then compounding the mistake by offering arms to Delhi.
The IHT makes two compelling points. First, the US is wrong to encourage these two nuclear powers, which have already fought three times, to engage in a US-fuelled arms race. Second, selling expensive weapons to Pakistan, an authoritarian state, is hardly the best way to encourage it towards democracy.
There is another point to be made. The US has been badgering the EU - rightfully - not to lift its arms embargo on China. As the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, argued earlier this month, the EU "should do nothing" that alters the military balance of power in Asia through the sale of sophisticated weapons. The EU duly backed off. But, lo and behold, the US a few days later takes a decision that will do just that in south Asia.
Meanwhile, India yesterday announced new defence orders from Russia, Germany, Italy, Israel and even Qatar, worth a total of $746m (£396.5m).
Anybody but the US, India seemed to be saying.
Posted by Mark Tran at March 30, 2005 01:05 PM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/world_news/2005/03/30/india_spurns_us_arms.html
March 30, 2005
India has said thanks but no thanks to the US offer to sell Delhi its F-16 warplanes. Washington made the gesture in a bid to placate India after George Bush last week broke with 15 years of policy by deciding to sell Pakistan the same high-performance aircraft. Pakistan has been after these F-16s for years and the sale is clearly a reward for President Pervez Musharraf for his support for America's "war on terror". But an editorial in the International Herald Tribune takes the Bush administration to task for its initial decision and then compounding the mistake by offering arms to Delhi.
The IHT makes two compelling points. First, the US is wrong to encourage these two nuclear powers, which have already fought three times, to engage in a US-fuelled arms race. Second, selling expensive weapons to Pakistan, an authoritarian state, is hardly the best way to encourage it towards democracy.
There is another point to be made. The US has been badgering the EU - rightfully - not to lift its arms embargo on China. As the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, argued earlier this month, the EU "should do nothing" that alters the military balance of power in Asia through the sale of sophisticated weapons. The EU duly backed off. But, lo and behold, the US a few days later takes a decision that will do just that in south Asia.
Meanwhile, India yesterday announced new defence orders from Russia, Germany, Italy, Israel and even Qatar, worth a total of $746m (£396.5m).
Anybody but the US, India seemed to be saying.
Posted by Mark Tran at March 30, 2005 01:05 PM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/world_news/2005/03/30/india_spurns_us_arms.html
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 4:24 PM
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