US for military cooperation with India to strengthen ties

The Bush Administration has denied that it has declared the decision to provide fighter F-16 fighter aircraft to Pakistan and other military equipment to Pakistan. Some critics have argued this is to balance the envisaged US-India civilian nuclear agreement and is a clear indication that the US policy towards South Asia still remains a zero-sum game.

Nicholas Burns, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, in an interaction with leaders and political activists in the Indian American community who questioned the administration's decision to supply sophisticated F-16s and other weaponry to Pakistan, protested, "The United States is also a good friend of Pakistan. That's obvious. But we don't have to choose between Pakistan and India."

"We have different relationships with them and President Bush made this clear in his visits to South Asia," in March of 2006, he said. "We have a close military relationship with Pakistan because frankly, we've got a problem on the Pakistan/ Afghanistan border with al Qaeda and the Taliban striking at American forces."

Burns said, "We want Pakistan to be our partner in opposing those groups. We've a different partnership with India."

He said that this alliance with New Delhi "is built on the values of our two countries, it is built on the people, the Indian American community in our community, it is built on shared global interests, and you are going to see soon a military relationship develop in a very strong way between India and the United States."

"You'll see economic, commercial and cultural ties, but you will also see military ties develop. And, I am very optimistic that we have a lot that we can do together -the Indian government and the American government in terms of military cooperation and that is the new horizon for this relationship."