Blinken defends Pakistan arms sales from Indian criticism

 US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday defended military sales to Pakistan after withering  from growing US partner India, which considers itself the target of Islamabad´s F-16 planes.

Blinken met in Washington with India’s foreign minister a day after separate talks with his counterpart from Pakistan, whose Cold War alliance with Washington has frayed over Islamabad’s relationship with Afghanistan’s Taliban.

The top US diplomat defended a $450 million F-16 deal for Pakistan approved earlier in September, saying the package was for the maintenance of Pakistan’s existing fleet.

“These are not new planes, new systems, new weapons. It’s sustaining what they have,” Blinken told a news conference with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

“Pakistan’s programme bolsters its capability to deal with terrorist threats emanating from Pakistan or from the region. It’s in no one’s interests that those threats be able to go forward with impunity,” Blinken said.