India warns US on arms sales to Pak

India warned on Friday that new American arms sales to Pakistan could harm improving New Delhi-Washington ties as well as a promising dialog...

India warned on Friday that new American arms sales to Pakistan could harm improving New Delhi-Washington ties as well as a promising dialogue between the South Asia’s two nuclear rivals. During talks, top Bush administration officials raised US concerns about Iran’s nuclear activities but Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said his government was ‘‘not really in a position to pass judgment.”

Saran met Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice before she went in for minor surgery and also had meetings with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

Saran said he was told that the US administration had not decided whether to go forward with the F-16 sale to Pakistan. But he told a news briefing: ‘‘ I did raise our concerns at reports of impeding arms sales by the US to Pakistan.

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‘‘We pointed out the repercussion that such supplies could have on the ongoing India-Pakistan dialogue, poised at a rather sensitive juncture.” Meanwhile, US officials are learnt to have assured Saran that Bush is committed to advancing relations with India, and that Washington supports the India-Pakistan dialogue, and will continue to press Pakistan to end cross-border attacks.

Saran said the American officials described Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s decision to withdraw troops in Jammu and Kashmir ‘‘an act of statesmanship’’.

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