The Big Question: F-16 A Truce Or A US Game Play?

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was having an interaction with people of the Indian dissemination in Washington when he was asked a question about United States’s decision to send the F-16 package to Pakistan.

Attacking the US argument that it was sending the F-16 fighter jet for Pakistan to meet ‘current and future counterterrorism threats’, he said ‘you are not fooling anybody by saying these things’

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar who is on a 10-day visit to the US was interacting with the Indian diaspora when he was asked a question about the India-US relationship and the US deciding to ‘sell’ the F-16 aircraft to Pakistan.

Talking about the US-Pakistan relationship he said “Very honestly, it’s a relationship that has neither ended up serving Pakistan well, nor serving the American interests. So, it is really for the United States today to reflect on what are the merits of this relationship and what do they get by it, “If I were to speak to an American policy-maker, I would really make the case (that) look what you are doing… forget about us it’s actually not good for you, look at the last 3 years on where this relationship has gone and what cost you have paid”

Taking a sharp look at the way the US-Pakistan relationship has evolved in recent years he said, On F-16 aircraft he said, “For someone to say I am doing this because it is all counter-terrorism content and so when you are talking of an aircraft like a capability of an F-16 where everybody knows, you know where they are deployed and their use. You are not fooling anybody by saying these things,”

Earlier this month, the US government led by President Joe Biden decided to overturn the decision of his predecessor Donald Trump to suspend military aid to Pakistan in lieu of it providing safe havens for the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network. Biden administration, however, approved a $450 million F-16 fighter jet fleet sustainment programme for Pakistan arguing that it would sustain Islamabad’s capability to meet current and future counterterrorism threats by maintaining the F-16 fleet.

Rajnath Singh Indian Defence Minister had earlier expressed India’s concerns over the US decision to provide sustenance package for Pakistan’s F-16 fleet.