Indo-US defence deal may create strategic imbalance in S Asia: Pak

Afzal Khan in Islamabad

Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tasnim Aslam on Thursday said the Indo-US defence deal might create strategic imbalance in South Asia.

She said this while addressing mediapersons in Islamabad on the recent visit of US President Barack Obama to India. She expressed concern that India’s defence budget had increased by 12 per cent in 2014-15.

She said the Indo-US trade deal and other agreements struck during the US President’s recent visit to India were a bilateral matter between those two countries.

The Indo-US trade deal is their bilateral matter, Aslam said, adding that Islamabad also enjoyed good economic and trade ties with the US which was Pakistan’s biggest trading partner.

While Obama’s visit to New Delhi was under way, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff) Raheel Sharif travelled to China where he was promised cooperation in “all respects”.

Addressing mediapersons, Aslam said Pakistan attached great importance to its relations with Beijing because China was a source of peace and stability in the region.

Pak Punjab Guv quits over ‘anti-govt’ remarks

Pakistan Punjab province Governor Chaudhry Sarwar resigned on Thursday following a conversation with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over his statements on the government's foreign policy. “Obama's visit to India is a failure of the Pakistan government. The second visit of Obama to India is Pakistan's big failure on foreign affairs front as it should have arranged his visit to Pakistan,” Sarwar said in his statement after Obama's trip to India. In a damage-control mode, the government claimed that Sarwar was asked to submit his resignation. “Unfortunately, the truth is in scarce supply in this country,” Sarwar said adding that nobody asked him to resign.