NEW DELHI — 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.
