BEIJING: There is no military alliance between China and Pakistan, butChina’s arms exports to Pakistan are a powerful weapon to safeguard theSouth Asian country’s military sovereignty, state-run Global Timeslink>said in a commentary.
Pakistan has been shunning the US in favour of Chinese high-technologyweapons, the Financial Times reported earlier this week.
Since 2010, US arms exports to Pakistan plummeted from $1 billion to just$21 million last year, according to the report, while China has becomePakistan’s most consistent supplier of military hardware.
It is Pakistan’s full right to choose who to buy from in the global armsmarket, which has long been dominated by the US, Global Times reportedThursday.
Washington always imposes conditions such as political criteria andstrategic arrangement for its economic aid.
Military assistance works the same way.
One of the US’ principles in arms exports is targeting turbulent regionsand supporting its allies in those areas through defense exports tomaximize US national interests, it added.
According to the newspaper, the US said it was suspending at least $900million in security assistance to Pakistan until it takes action againstthe Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network militant groups.
In the last few months of the Obama administration, the US state departmentmade an announcement which caused a new breach in Washington’s tumultuousrelationship with Pakistan.John…
With its military assistance, the US aims to force Pakistan to actaccording to a scenario written by Washington.
Onerous conditions imposed with military aid and arms exports to a certaindegree harm Pakistan’s military sovereignty.
It is normal to see Pakistan making efforts to diversify the sources of itsarms imports.
That is where China comes in.
Although China’s overall strength in military technology still lags behindthat of the US, the country’s defense products have emerged in the world’sarms market with a high performance-to-price ratio.
China’s rising profile in this field gives options to arms importers likePakistan, breaking the Western hegemony in military sales.
As for China’s arms exports, the government has always taken a prudent andresponsible attitude to carry out strict management in accordance withrelevant UN Security Council resolutions and Chinese laws.
China’s arms exports will be conductive to enhancing recipient countries’capability of legitimate self-defense.
The Chinese government imposes no political conditions in the arms trade.
“Beijing doesn’t allow its arms exports to disturb regional peace, but italso has no intention of interfering in the internal affairs of therecipient countries.
What lies behind the increasing interest of Pakistan in working with Chinain arms trade is its intention of safeguarding the country’s militarysovereignty.
“China’s arms exports to Pakistan will not lead to a military alliance;instead, they will strengthen the South Asian country’s militarysovereignty.” – APP