U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Photo courtesy U.S. Department of State
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday defended a $450 million F-16 deal between Washington and Islamabad after India had criticized it.
Addressing a press conference in Washington, D.C. alongside Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, he said the package was for the maintenance of Pakistan’s existing fleet and did not include the sale of any new capabilities, weapons, or munitions. “These are not new planes, new systems, new weapons. It’s sustaining what they have,” he said.
“Pakistan’s program bolsters its capability to deal with terrorist threats emanating from Pakistan or from the region. It’s in no one’s interests that those threats be able to go forward with impunity, and so this capability that Pakistan has had can benefit all of us in dealing with terrorism,” he said, adding that the U.S. had a “responsibility and an obligation to whomever we provide military equipment to make sure that it’s maintained and sustained. That’s our obligation.”
To a question on the need for F-16s to counter terrorism, Blinken said there were “clear threats” that continued to come from Pakistan and its neighboring countries. “And whether it is TTP [Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan] that may be targeting Pakistan, whether it’s ISIS-Khorasan, whether it’s Al Qaeda, I think the threats are clear, well-known, and we all have an interest in making sure that we have the means to deal with them. And that’s what this is about,” he added.
Earlier, addressing an event organized by the Indian community, Jaishankar had said the U.S. was “not fooling anybody” by claiming the F-16 sales were for counter-terrorism. “When you’re talking of an aircraft like the capability of the F-16, everybody knows where they are deployed,” he said. “Very honestly, it’s a relationship that has neither ended up serving Pakistan well nor serving American interests well,” he added.
Diplomatic conduct
In a statement, Pakistan’s Foreign Office stressed that Pakistan had “longstanding and broad-based” ties with the United States, which have proven vital in promoting peace, security and stability in the region. “In recent months Pakistan-U.S. relations have become robust and multidimensional, further deepening people-to-people and bilateral ties. Both countries are constructively engaged to maintain regional peace and security,” it said.
“India is strongly urged to respect basic norms of inter-state relations and refrain from commenting on the bilateral ties between the U.S. and Pakistan,” it said of Jaishankar’s criticism. “India also needs serious introspection of its diplomatic conduct,” it added.