India for monitoring mechanism to stop misuse of US aid to Pak

Defence Minister A K Antony during his meeting with US Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen here also expressed his apprehensions that American arms aid was disproportionate to the war on terror for which it was meant, Defence Ministry sources said here.

Antony told the American Admiral that they should ensure that aid was used only for the purpose it was meant.

The Indian side conveyed its serious concerns over the aid to Pakistan being misused against it and asked the US to establish a "monitoring mechanism" to prevent it.

In a 45-minute meeting at South Block here, Mullen is said to have appraised the Indian Defence Minister about the American assessment of the security situation prevailing in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"The US Admiral called on the Defence Minister here for a 45-minute meeting and discussed the security situation in South Asia and the Af-Pak scenario, and also its changing dynamics in great detail," the sources said.

Mullen also renewed US Defence Secretary Robert Gates' invitation to Antony to visit Washington, which was accepted.

Accordingly, Antony will be visiting the US in the last week of September this year, they said.
Earlier in the day, Mullen called on his Indian counterpart and IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik. The meeting with the Air Chief was described as a courtesy call by IAF officials.