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| Monday, 12 July 2004 |
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Russia snubs Pakistan on arms supplies MOSCOW, Sunday (AFP) Russia's foreign minister told his Pakistani counterpart Friday that Moscow had no plans to supply arms to Islamabad, thus keeping to traditional ties to Pakistan's arch-rival India. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, as the two partners tried to settle traditionally uneasy ties. But Lavrov said that "Russia, so far, has no concrete plans in this area (of providing arms to Pakistan)," RIA Novosti quoted Lavrov as saying after a meeting with Pakistan's top diplomat. Lavrov said that the "military balance" between India and Pakistan was discussed during the meeting, the news agency said. "Russia's military cooperation with India will not ruin this balance of power, and we are carefully making sure that this balance remains unbroken," Lavrov said. In stark remarks, he added that Pakistan reserved the right to trade arms with other countries. It was not immediately clear if Kasuri had asked for arms shipments from Moscow. Kasuri for his part said that Pakistan was seeking to make peace with India, but made no concrete offers. "Pakistan has the willpower to do this," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying. Russia regards India as its traditional ally in south Asia, but Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf made the first visit to Moscow by a Pakistan head of state last February in what Islamabad declared to be a breakthrough in Russian-Pakistani relations. For many years Pakistan backed the radical Islamic regime in Afghanistan and mujahedin fighters that fought against Soviet troops occupying Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. |
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