U.S. Weapons Shipment to Pakistan May Spark Arms Race, India Warns

A Pakistani army officer dismisses it as “peanuts.” But Indian officials worry that a looming shipment of high-tech U.S. weaponry to their neighbor, the first since 1990, will stoke a regional arms race.

“The possibility that it opens up for future American military supplies to Pakistan is, I think, of major concern,” said Indian army Maj. Gen. Dipankar Banerjee, deputy director of the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, a New Delhi think tank.

Late last year, Congress set the stage for the showdown by approving delivery of $368 million worth of military hardware paid for by Pakistan but embargoed since October 1990 because of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program.

Amid renewed controversy about Pakistan’s nuclear designs, officials of the Clinton administration met last week with members of Congress.

The administration has made no formal announcement, but the lawmakers took the discussions as notification that the sale would go ahead, news reports said.

“We are very happy with this latest decision,” Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Gul Hanif said in Islamabad. “It is symbolic of the improving relations.”

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The controversial package includes three Orion maritime surveillance and strike aircraft, Harpoon antiship missiles, howitzers, kits to enhance the night-fighting capabilities of Cobra helicopter gunships already owned by Pakistan and spare parts for its squadrons of F-16 jet fighters.

The deliveries have been held up under legislation that terminated all U.S. military and economic aid to Pakistan because of Washington’s suspicions that Islamabad was building nuclear bombs.

Securing a one-time, partial waiver of the ban that bears the name of its author, Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), was a triumph for Pakistan and a bruising defeat for the Indian establishment.

“Notwithstanding the fact that Pakistan has violated the Pressler Amendment, which is the law of the land of the United States, this sale is being allowed to go through,” Banerjee said. “This indicates a degree of strategic cooperation between Pakistan and the United States that is not warranted at this stage.”

The Indians are doubly perturbed because of recent CIA reports that China sold Pakistan 5,000 ring magnets of the type used to enrich uranium for weapons. Pakistan has denied this.

Other news reports have quoted U.S. officials as saying they have evidence that Pakistan would conduct its first nuclear test should India explode another nuclear device, its first since 1974.

U.S. officials say they want good relations with both South Asian countries, which are potential major markets for American goods and services, and they deny any leanings toward Pakistan.

But Sen. Hank Brown (R-Colo.), who spearheaded the legislation to allow a one-time override of the Pressler law, said the United States should not neglect the needs of a country that helped Washington arm anti-Soviet moujahedeen in Afghanistan and that belonged to U.S.-led Cold War treaty alliances.

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“Pakistan is an ally that has stood with the United States for many years,” Brown said in a letter to President Clinton. “We owe them the return of their money or delivery of their equipment.”

The Colorado Republican said that, if Pakistan and China have violated U.S. laws on nuclear proliferation, they should face “stiff penalties.”

But he argued that such punishment should not include a ban on the transfer of arms already paid for.

India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since their independence in 1947, have seen relations plummet recently because of an ongoing dispute over Kashmir.

Injection of more U.S. weaponry into the region “could instigate the first-ever arms race since the end of the Cold War,” a spokesman for India’s External Affairs Ministry said recently.

J.C. Malik, a former Indian air force captain who edits the Vayu aerospace review, said in an interview that the most worrisome aspect from India’s viewpoint is the “advancement of technology” represented by U.S.-designed military hardware such as the Orion and the Harpoon, and the need to spend large sums on countermeasures.

Brig. Talat Munir, the Pakistani defense attache in India, dismissed such talk as alarmist hype.

“This is peanuts, nothing more,” he said Friday.

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U.S. officials also contend that the Indians’ fears are baseless.

“Even after delivery of this equipment, India would retain overwhelming conventional military superiority in the region,” Undersecretary of State Peter Tarnoff has said.

Earlier, at least 14 members of Congress wrote Clinton asking that he halt the weapons deal because of Pakistan’s alleged import of Chinese nuclear-weapons-related equipment.

On Thursday, Pressler submitted a bill to restore the ban on military transfers. Evidently, there has been enough resistance from members of Congress to keep the Clinton administration from announcing a decision.

“We are now reviewing the results of consultations with members of the Senate and House of Representatives on how to implement the Brown Amendment,” State Department press officer Nancy Beck said Friday.

Pakistan has also paid $658 million for 28 F-16s, but the planes are not covered by the current waiver. U.S. officials say they will try to help Pakistan find another buyer for the now mothballed aircraft, then reimburse Islamabad from the proceeds.

Times staff writer Stanley Meisler in Washington contributed to this report.