Transferring advanced US military hardware to India will endanger strategic stability in region: Pakistan

Pakistan has reportedly expressed its deep concerns to the United States about transferring of advanced American military hardware and technology to India.

Citing unnamed official sources, The Express Tribune, a daily English-language newspaper based in Pakistan, said on Thursday that Islamabad had told Washington through diplomatic channels that the transfer of such technologies to India without taking into account Pakistan’s "legitimate concerns" would undermine the strategic stability and conventional balance in the South Asia region.

Earlier this month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit to the US and met with President Joe Biden.

The two leaders then announced a series of defense and commercial deals on semiconductors, critical minerals, technology, space cooperation and defense cooperation and sales, all purportedly designed to boost military and economic ties between Washington and New Delhi.

As part of the agreement, General Electric Co. will jointly manufacture F414 engines with state-owned Indian firm Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. for the Tejas light-combat aircraft, as part of an effort to improve defense- and technology-sharing.

Furthermore, the two sides also announced a few military collaborations, including progress on an order for MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones made by General Atomics and an agreement that will allow US Navy Ships to undertake major repairs at Indian Shipyards.

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According to the report on Thursday, Islamabad told Washington that India would be emboldened after acquiring such technologies, thus allegedly putting Pakistan's national security interests in jeopardy.

Pakistan also reportedly made it clear to the US that such Indo-US cooperation that "harms" Pakistan's interests would leave Islamabad with no other choice but to adopt counter-measures.

New Delhi has for years accused Islamabad of playing accessory to militant attacks waged in India, including a massive 2008 attack in Mumbai that killed more than 165 people, although Islamabad has fiercely rejected the allegation.

India further claims that Pakistan has aided militants fighting Indian forces in the country's disputed Kashmir region since the late 1980s.

Pakistan denies the accusation and insists that it only gives diplomatic and moral support to the overwhelmingly Muslim Kashmiri population seeking independence from the oppressive rule of the nationalist Hindu government in India.

India-Pakistan relations have remained tense for decades. Since independence from Britain in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two over the Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both fully claim but partially rule.

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