Wednesday, April 6 2005 15:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Hoping to develop its ties with India and Pakistan on "independent tracks," the US has claimed it was creating a "more stable" balance of power in the region by deciding to provide F-16 fighter jets to Islamabad and responding to New Delhi's request for information on high-performance aircraft.

"The sale of F-16s to Pakistan... but also, the decision to participate in the request for information from India for high-performance aircraft means that we believe these two relationships can develop on independent tracks, that we are not somehow destabilising the balance of power by having good Defence relations with each of them," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told members of the National Conference of Editorial Writers yesterday (Apr 5, 2005).

"In fact, we are creating a new set of circumstances in which the balance of power will be more stable by an American Defence relationship with both of them," she said.

Rice also claimed the US decision to have good relations with India and Pakistan separately, contributed to a significant improvement in Indo-Pakistan relations.

"...We have de-hyphenated the relationship - we have a good relationship with India, we have a good relationship with Pakistan - all of that, I think, has contributed to a significant improvement in relations between the two."

Rice ruled out any comparison between the two South Asian neighbours, noting that India was looking to "grow its influence into global influence," a goal, she said, the US supports, while Pakistan "is looking to a settled neighbourhood so that it can deal with extremism in its own borders".