NEW DELHI: India registered a strong protest with the US last week over the latter's decision to approve a $ 450 million sustainment package for Pakistan's aging F-16 fleet. The protest is learnt to have come in the form of a sharp rebuke delivered to US assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs Donald Lu and focused on both substance and timing of the decision.
The package for Pakistan, which reversed the Trump administration's decision in 2018 to suspend such assistance to Islamabad, was announced while India was hosting top US officials, including Lu himself, for a US-India 2+2 Intersessional Meeting and Maritime Security Dialogue. Lu also led the US delegation in a Quad senior officials' meeting.
