U.S.-Pakistan moving ahead with sale of F16s
'Pakistan Times' US Bureau

WASHINGTON (US): U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Richard Boucher has said “we are moving ahead with the sale” of F16s to Pakistan, which he added”we think is very important to our relationship, and to Pakistan’s defence needs.”

He was responding to a question at an on-the-record press roundtable on the US-India civil nuclear initiative, at the State Department.

He added, U.S. administration has “worked closely” with Congress, “and, we smoothed out a few of the difficulties we faced there on procedures that we use.”

Mr. Boucher noted that United States “notified in late June” (June 28), and that the month-long notification “period ends tomorrow.” Technically, the sale proposal would stand adopted, with the lapse of one month notification period.

“It’s is going very well,” was his brief reply asked about the progress of U.S.-Pakistan energy dialogue. The Assistant Secretary of State told APP that “we keep hearing from energy folks, they are having meetings. It is working well.”

“In fact, all parts of the energy dialogue with Pakistan are going well.”

He referred to Secretary Rice’s recent visit to Pakistan and her meeting with President General Pervez Musharraf.

“Secretary Rice and President Musharraf reviewed it briefly, and noted that on the strategic side, the economic side, the education side, energy side, science and technology—all the different areas that President Bush and President Musharraf defined, in fact, have been moving quite swiftly and quite well together to accomplish things necessary.”

Mr. Boucher leaves for Abu Dhabi to undertake visits of UAE, China and Bangladesh. He would make brief stop overs in New Delhi and then also in Tashkent.●