ISLAMABAD: The ministry on Sunday expressed 'surprise' at the Indian government's disappointment over the United States' call to sell eight F-16 fighter jets to Asian nation.
A 'disappointed' Bharat on Sabbatum summoned the United States of America envoy in New Delhi, Richard Verma, to 'convey its displeasure' relating to the Obama administration's call to apprize the sale of the craft to Asian nation.
Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar met the United States of America ambassador at the ministry to convey India's disapproval of the deal to Washington, during a meeting that lasted forty five minutes.
Read: 'Disappointed' Bharat summons United States of America ambassador over sale of F-16s to Asian nation
"Their army and arsenal stock is way larger and that they square measure the biggest bourgeois of defence instrumentation," ministry interpreter Nafees Zakaria aforesaid during a statement.
"With regards to the F-16 sale, Asian nation and also the us square measure closely cooperating in countering terrorist act efforts," he said, adding that the United States of America State Department Deputy interpreter Mark Toner had earlier proclaimed that the aim of the sale was the enhance Pakistan's exactitude strike capability.
It is in United States of America security interests to support Pakistan's counter-terrorism efforts, Toner had aforesaid.
Know more: United States of America committed to boosting Pakistan’s exactitude strike capability, Congress told
The $699 million deal consists of eight Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets, beside coaching, measuring instrument and different instrumentation.
The F-16 craft can enable the Asian nation Air Force to control all told varieties of weather, at night, also as "enhance Pakistan's ability to conduct counter-insurgency and scheme operations," the United States of America Defence Security Cooperation Agency, that coordinates such foreign arms sales, aforesaid during a statement.
The planned deal can currently bear a 30-day notification amount when that it'll be finalised.
The new craft can augment Pakistan’s sizable force of fighter jets which incorporates over seventy F-16s and dozens of French and Chinese military plane.
Earlier in January, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif throughout a National Assembly informing told lawmakers that Associate in Nursing Indian lobby, also as Pakistan's former ambassador to the United States of America square measure "working against us" and had approached the U.S. House of Representatives of Representatives to lobby against the sale of the fighter jets, inflicting a delay.
