ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has expressed to the United States its significant reservations regarding its expanding defence cooperation with India, which will directly jeopardise its security interests.

The US was informed through diplomatic channels, according to official sources who spoke to The Express Tribune on Thursday, that transferring cutting-edge military technology to India without taking Pakistan’s legitimate concerns into account would jeopardise the strategic balance and conventional balance in the South Asian region.

According to officials acquainted with the situation, Pakistan warned the US that India would feel emboldened by these acquisitions and endanger the country’s national security interests.

Washington received a clear message from Islamabad that Pakistan would have to take defensive measures if India and the US cooperated in a way that would jeopardise its interests.

In addition to being full of aesthetics, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent state visit to the United States resulted in several significant choices.

For the nation’s indigenous light combat aircraft, for instance, General Electric of the US and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, a state-owned company in India, would manufacture modern fighter jet engines there.

Additionally, the US has promised to establish a facility in India to create battle-proven armed drones. Up until a few years ago, Russia held a 65% market share as India’s top armaments supplier for many years.

That has now dropped to 45%, while the US share has increased from 1% to 11%. The US memory chip company Micron Technology announced during Modi’s visit that it would spend up to $825 million to develop a semiconductor assembly and test plant in India, resulting in the creation of thousands of jobs.

This suggests that the US is not only willing to sell India guns but also isn’t against the concept of transferring technology, which has already alarmed Pakistan.

Although the US may be targeting China with its arms sales and technology transfers to India, the move will undoubtedly disturb the region’s military balance.

Pakistan believes that a direct threat to its national security comes from the strengthening of US-India defence ties.

Such actions are weakening strategic stability and highlighting the military imbalance in the area. They continue to be ineffective in attaining the goal of a lasting peace in South Asia, according to a statement from the Foreign Office in response to the defence accords.

Since its main goal is to subdue China, the US is undoubtedly not very worried by this. In fact, the Indian army broke the ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) just a day after Modi returned from his trip to the US.

Since the two nations decided to renew the truce in February 2021, this was the first reported violation. According to the statement released by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Indian action was related to its expanding defence relations with the US.

“Indian forces have started a plan to take innocent lives to satiate their false narratives and concocted allegations, driven by a newfound geopolitical patronage,” says the report.

Pakistan was specifically mentioned in the joint Indo-US declaration, which alarmed Islamabad as well. The united statement charged Pakistan with using terrorist proxies and cross-border terrorism. The accusations were vigorously refuted by Pakistan, which viewed them as baseless, biassed, and misleading.

A demarche on the joint statement between the US and India that was released on June 22 was made to the US Deputy Chief of Mission when he was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The US side was informed of Pakistan’s worries and displeasure with the “unwarranted, one-sided and misleading” comments in the statement.

The United States should avoid making statements that could be interpreted as supporting India’s “baseless and politically motivated narrative” against Pakistan, it was emphasised.

It was also stressed that Pakistan and the US’s cooperation in the fight against terrorism had been making good progress and that creating an atmosphere that was trust- and understanding-centered was essential to furthering Pakistan-US relations.