Mindful of the Indian concern about the misuse of its military supplies to Pakistan, the US has refused to provide combat drones to Islamabad. It will offer them tactical, short-range UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) instead.
Mindful of the Indian concern about the misuse of its military supplies to Pakistan, the US has refused to provide combat drones to Islamabad. It will offer them tactical, short-range UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) instead.
“The US has been clearly observing how the equipment provided to Pakistan was being used and there is a choice what to provide and what not to provide to the country,” said Michele Flournoy, US under secretary of defence, in New Delhi on Tuesday. Islamabad had recently requested Washington to provide armed drones (weaponised unmanned vehicles). The two tactical UAVs will be used for surveillance during military operations in FATA.
Flournoy is the principal advisor to US secretary of defence Robert Gates on the formulation of national security and defence policy, the integration and oversight policy of DoD (department of defence), and plans to achieve national security objectives.
Flournoy, who met defence minister AK Antony, national security advisor Shiv Shankar Menon and defence secretary Pradeep Kumar, spoke about a new framework for cooperation between both the countries for homeland security and to combat terrorism. It has been put together by the Indian home ministry and the US department of homeland security.
Defence minister Antony will visit the US in the last week of September with a focus on cooperation on regional security matters and discussions about strategic concerns. These issues will be further taken up during president Barack Obama’s visit to India in November this year, where he will address a joint session of both houses in parliament.
About the pending agreements between both nations, like the contentious CISMOA Communication and Information Security Memorandum of Agreement), LSA (Logistic Support Agreement) and BECA (Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation), Flournoy said, “The US has offered these agreements to India, but they were not requirements, instead a choice that India could make.”
Big ticket defence deals, like the M777 ultralight howitzers, C-17 heavy transport aircraft, 126 fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF), additional C-130J transport aircraft, are in the pipeline, many of whom are through the direct FMS (foreign military sale) route, between the governments.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}