US defends F-16 refit programme for Pakistan despite India’s protest

'We have an obligation', Blinken says after meeting with Jaishankar

Notwithstanding protests by India, the US on Tuesday not only justified its recent approval to a $450 million package to refit F-16 fighter jets currently in the service of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), but also stressed that both the South Asian nations were its partners.

After a meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar Secretary of State Antony Blinken told journalists that the US had not provided any new aircraft to Pakistan but only approved a “sustainment programme” for the American F-16 aircraft already in the service of the PAF. “We have a responsibility and an obligation to whomever we provide military equipment to make it sure that they are maintained and sustained,” Blinken said, adding that programme approved by the US would bolster Pakistan’s capability to deal with terrorist threat.

Jaishankar had on Monday strongly dismissed the US government’s claim that it had approved the package to support Pakistan’s counter-terrorism operations.

Though the External Affairs Minister advised the US to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of its relations with Islamabad, the Biden Administration stressed that both India and Pakistan were partners of the US and its relation with each of them stood on its own.

Blinken’s meeting with Jaishankar was preceded by his talks with Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. The US Secretary of State stressed that Pakistan should have “a responsible relationship” with India.

“These (India and Pakistan) are both partners of ours, with different points of emphasis in each, and we look to both as partners, because we do have in many cases shared values, we do have in many cases shared interests. And, the relationship we have with India stands on its own; the relationship we have with Pakistan stands on its own,” Ned Price, the spokesperson of the US State Department, told journalists.

He was asked for the Biden Administration’s response to Jaishankar’s comment on Monday that the US-Pakistan relations had not served the interests of any of the two nations.

Jaishankar earlier had a meeting with Biden’s Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon. Austin said that India and the US were taking significant steps to deepen defence cooperation from stronger information sharing and defense industrial ties to cooperation in emerging defence domains. “Today, we are positioning the US and Indian militaries to operate and coordinate more closely together than ever," the US Secretary of Defence said, noting that the armed forces of India and the US were enhancing interoperability. He also added that India had already purchased Apache and Seahawk helicopters and had expressed interest in “other US defence capabilities”.

“Defence and Security cooperation is a key pillar of the contemporary India-US partnership. We noted the steady progress in policy exchange, interoperability, defence trade, service exercises and military-industrial cooperation,” Jaishankar tweeted after meeting Austin.

Earlier on September 14, Austin had a phone call with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who too had conveyed India's displeasure over the US move to refit the Pakistani F-16 aircraft.

India had earlier accused the PAF of using the US F-16 aircraft against India while retaliating to the IAF’s air-strike on a terror camp deep inside Pakistan in February 2019.