ISLAMABAD: Pakistan shed on Thursday rare light on its ongoing discussions with China and Saudi Arabia on defence cooperation.
The government has been pursuing plans for a “new era in strategic partnership” with Saudi Arabia, which it wants to be anchored in time-tested defence relationship. Plans are also afoot for expanded defence cooperation with China.
Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said at the weekly media briefing that the possibility of collaboration in defence production was discussed during the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdelaziz last month.
“Nothing has yet been finalised… these discussions are continuing,” she said.
Apart from the discussions during the Crown Prince’s visit, the two countries have had quite a few high-level exchanges. Media has long speculated about the impending Pak-Saudi defence deal, but the spokesperson’s remarks are the first official confirmation.
Ms Aslam said that a proposal for collaboration in joint production of armament was under consideration, but she ruled out joint production of fighter jet JF-17 and training aircraft with Saudi Arabia, saying Pakistan was interested only in selling these planes.
“You know that we produce JF-17 Thunder and Mushaq training aircraft and obviously we would be interested if they can be sold.”
For the second consecutive briefing, the spokesperson emphasised on “requirement of end-user certificates” from the country getting Pakistani defence exports – Saudi Arabia in this case. The insistence on “end-user certificates” was meant to dispel a perception that Saudi Arabia could be re-exporting the defence hardware acquired from Pakistan to Syrian rebels.
Furthermore, she said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia already had defence training exchanges that were continuing.
On China, whose defence minister Gen Chang Wanquan visited Pakistan last week, Ms Aslam said Pakistan’s defence acquisitions from China should be seen in the regional context.
“While we do not want to indulge in an arms race and spend our meagre resources on buying arms, at the same time we cannot be completely oblivious to what is happening in the region. We have to keep a level of conventional stability,” she said, indicating that Pakistan is making fresh defence acquisitions from China.
The spokesperson against whom Senate last week admitted a privilege motion for what were perceived as offensive remarks said she held parliamentarians in high esteem.
The Senate had taken a strong exception to her comments at last week’s media briefing, when she said: “The criticism (of Syria policy), in the first place, is motivated or there would be questions about the intelligence level of those who are indulging in this debate.”
The senators believed that the comments were aimed at them because they were the first ones to debate what was seen as a shift in government’s ‘Syria policy’.
The remarks under question have now been expunged from the transcript on the website of the foreign ministry.
“We have never ever commented on what parliamentarians say. As public representatives, they have every right to debate any issue or ask any question of the government, of the Foreign Office or any other institution,” Ms Aslam said.