In a joint news conference yesterday in New Delhi, Rice and Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh said they discussed possible sales of the F-16 to both India and Pakistan, but did not expect any agreement to be announced.
India wants to buy the US weaponry while denying it to Pakistan. The neighboring rivals have fought three wars since their 1947 independence from Britain.
Rice -- who is due to visit Pakistan next on her whirlwind tour of Asia this week that also includes stops in South Korea, Japan and China -- said F-16 sales would be a topic during talks in Islamabad as well. Pakistan bought 40 F-16s during the 1980s, but Congress put a stop to sales in 1990.
Asked about India's plan to build an oil pipeline from Iran, Rice said US objections are well-known. The US has no diplomatic relations with Iran and wants to keep international pressure on the Tehran regime to give up nuclear ambitions and institute democratic reforms.
Singh, however, indicated little willingness to cancel the deal.
"We have no problems of any kind with Iran," he said, as Rice looked on.
During their meeting, Singh said he and Rice "did express ... concerns about several matters on the defense issue," adding that "There are one or two items on which we don't agree, but our relations have now reached a maturity where we can discuss these things freely and frankly."
Asked by reporters to comment on Italy's plan to reduce its 3,000-member force in Iraq this fall, Rice said she was certain any decision by Italy would be made in consultation with the coalition and praised Italy for its participation. "The real answer to Iraqi security will be when Iraqis can do those security tasks," she said.
En route to India earlier this week, Rice said the US has built solid relationships with India and Pakistan, in part because of their cooperation in the war on terrorism, Rice told reporters en route to India. That "has helped the two states to have good relations with each other," she said.
Speaking in New Delhi on Tuesday, Rice suggested that European nations might reconsider their decision to sell weapons to China after Beijing enacted a law authorizing military force against Taiwan.
Rice also blamed North Korea for its diplomatic isolation, and said international diplomacy remains the best way to persuade the destitute country to give up nuclear ambitions.
The six-way talks included the US, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, plus the North Koreans. North Korea pulled out of the talks, announced last month that is has already built a nuclear weapon and denounced the US.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
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