WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended a US decision to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan and elaborated on US efforts to build ties with both India and Pakistan at once, in a lengthy interview published by The Washington Post Saturday.
Although Rice discussed the new strategic approach with Islamabad and New Delhi in travels earlier this month, it was unveiled in the United States only Friday, by a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"What we're trying to do is to solidify and extend relations with both India and Pakistan at a time when we have good relations with both of them, something that most people didn't think could be done, and when they have improving relationships with one another," Rice told the Post.
"What we're trying to do is break out of the notion that this is a hyphenated relationship somehow, that anything that happens that's good for Pakistan has to be bad for India and vice versa."
There is likely to be concern on both sides, Rice noted, a day after Washington revealed plans for "a decisively broader strategic relationship" with India to help it become a major world power this century.
"What I talked about when I was in India was broadening and deepening our relationship for instance in defense cooperation, broadening and deepening our relationship in energy cooperation," Rice said.
Asked if that included nuclear power plants, Rice said "we're a step from that, certainly, but looking at their energy needs and trying to understand how they can be met."
She defended the decision to sell F-16s to Pakistan, whose leader, General Pervez Musharraf, ousted an elected government in a bloodless coup three and a half years ago.
"Pakistan has come a long way, it's on a better trajectory than it's ever been, or that it's been in many, many years," she said.
"Our job is to support that trajectory and to help bring that along."
She said she was struck by the September 11 commission's recommendation to "invest in the relationship with Pakistan, because if you don't, you're going to create the same situation we created in the '90s," when Pakistan forged ties with the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistan has been seeking additional multi-role fighter jets since 1990 when a deal for 40 such planes fell through because of US concerns over the country's nuclear programme.
But relations between the United States and Pakistan warmed up after Islamabad helped the Americans topple the hardline Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001.
Islamabad reportedly wants to buy up to 25 new fighter jets.
President George W. Bush on Friday telephoned Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to inform him of the planned sale, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
Singh expressed his "great disappointment," saying it could have "negative consequences" for India's security, according to the Indian leader's spokesman, Sanjaya Baru, in New Delhi.
But a US official said Washington was also prepared to sell F-16 and the more sophisticated F-18 fighters to India if it wants them.
"We don't see any impact on the relevant military balances in the region," the official said.
Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 and came close to a fourth clash in 2002.
Relations between the two have thawed since they launched a peace process 14 months ago, with the two countries rebuilding sporting ties, people-to-people contacts and transport links.
03/26/2005 10:03 GMT