Pakistan opposes supply of US armed drones to India

Islamabad : Pakistan on Friday opposed supply of armed drones by the US to India, warning that it could increase the chances of "military misadventures" leading to a conflict in the region.

The remarks by the Foreign Office spokesman came days after a senior Trump administration official said that the US was "considering" India's request for armed drones for its air force's modernisation drive. "Use of armed drones can lower the threshold for conflict, since it can encourage military misadventures, especially in the backdrop of irresponsible discourse about limited military operations below the strategic threshold," Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said in Islamabad.

Zakaria said that Pakistan has consistently maintained that preserving regional stability should be the fundamental consideration in any international arms transfer.

He said "extra-regional



powers" should be mindful of such actions, which can undermine strategic stability in South Asia. He demanded that any transfer of armed drones should also be closely examined in the context of the guidelines of the multilateral export control regimes, including the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which place certain limitations on such transfers.

Zakaria said that even if such transfers are below the prescribed thresholds, they definitely violate the spirit of the control regimes, which are aimed at controlling the proliferation of destabilising weapon systems, which can threaten regional peace and stability.

"We hope that the members of MTCR and other export control regimes fully understand their responsibility in not letting any country's membership of such groupings constitute a carte blanche for proliferation of destabilising weapon systems," he said.