Cash-strapped Pakistan sold Ukraine weapons worth $364 mn: Report

PTI

Islamabad/London, November 14

Cash-strapped Pakistan reportedly earned USD 364 million in an arms deal with two private US companies last year to supply ammunition to Ukraine in its war with Russia, according to a media report.

Sale of 155mm shells

• The report claimed that Pakistan signed two contracts with American companies named Global Military and Northrop Grumman for the sale of 155mm shells
• These agreements to provide weapons to Ukraine were signed on August 17, 2022

A British military cargo plane flew from the Pakistan Air Force Base Nur Khan in Rawalpindi to the British military base in Cyprus, Akrotiri, and then to Romania a total of five times to supply arms to the war-torn country, a news channel reported on Monday.

Islamabad has, however, consistently denied that it has provided any ammunition to Ukraine, a neighbouring country to Romania.

Citing details of the contract from the American Federal Procurement Data System, the report claimed that Pakistan signed two contracts with American companies named “Global Military” and “Northrop Grumman” for the sale of 155mm shells.

These agreements to provide weapons to Ukraine were signed on August 17, 2022, and were specifically linked to the purchase of 155mm shells.

The Foreign Office in Islamabad has denied any sale of arms and ammunition to Ukraine, saying Pakistan maintained a policy of “strict neutrality” in the dispute between the two countries and did not provide them with any arms or ammunition in that context. These alleged agreements took place during the rule of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — a multi-party coalition that ousted Imran Khan-led government through a no-trust vote in April last year.

Then Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, who had pledged to take Pakistan-UK relations to a “new height”, retired in November 2022.

In August 2022, when these alleged contracts were signed, the Ukraine crisis was very much a part of the political discourse in Pakistan, particularly in the wake of the cricketer-turned-politician Khan’s visit to Russia on February 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine.

Months after the visit, General Bajwa publicly distanced from Khan and called for the invasion to be stopped immediately.

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