Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 1

The Ministry of External Affairs had called the US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster to lodge its “grave concern” over US military assistance to Pakistan. India had also lodged its misgivings about resumption of US military aid to Pakistan in Washington as well.

“We have taken up the matter with the US Ambassador in Delhi, as well as with the US Government in Washington through our Ambassador.  We have expressed grave concern over US military assistance to Pakistan.  The US side has told us that the proposed sale does not indicate any change in the US policy of maintaining a freeze in military assistance to Pakistan,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Ravish Kumar told newspersons here today.

The Pentagon had said last month that the State Department had approved a $125 million deal for “24/7 end-use monitoring” of F-16 fighter jets it had earlier supplied to Pakistan. The US had reasoned that its  military aid, a nominal amount in military transactions which run into billions of dollars, is meant to continue technical and logistics support services for monitoring Pakistan’s operations of F-16 aircraft.

The announcement came after a meeting between Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and US President Donald Trump but India feels  this should not be the thin edge of the wedge before America begins full-fledged military aid in order to coax Islamabad into fully backing its plans for a wind-down in Afghanistan.