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             Canada eyes arms sale to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (Agencies) - Defence Minister Peter MacKay says Canada is considering ending its 11-year embargo on the sale of military technology to nuclear-armed Pakistan, reports TheStar.com.
The development comes as Pakistan’s army prepares to take its fight against Taliban militants into the tribal region bordering Afghanistan. In a telephone interview from Islamabad, MacKay, who this week called Pakistan the “most dangerous country in the world,” said he’s impressed with Pakistan’s resolve in taking on the Taliban.
“Doing military business in the future, and trade in particular, is something that is under consideration,” MacKay said after meeting with President Asif Zardari.
However, he added, “We’re not there yet.”
Canada cut off military supplies to Pakistan in 1998 after it conducted a nuclear weapons test in response to one carried out by neighbouring India.
Concern over Pakistan’s illegal and surreptitious move into the nuclear arms club was underlined by news that one of its leading physicists had sold nuclear secrets in the 1990s to such countries as North Korea and Libya.
That contributed to the continuation of Canada’s military embargo and prompted similar actions from other Western countries.
MacKay says Pakistan is doing its best to eradicate the Taliban.
“They are certainly a government that’s taking control of this situation,” MacKay told the Star. “Quite frankly, this is what the international community, including Canada, had been asking them to do all along.”

The Nation : May 21, 2009

 

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