Pakistan US's Major Non-NATO Ally

Date: 
Friday, March 19, 2004

Press Statement

Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell has announced that Pakistan will be accorded the status of a “major non-NATO ally”. This is a reflection of its ongoing and deep strategic and military relationship with Pakistan.

The Vajpayee government should explain what it proposes to do with its much vaunted strategic relationship with the US. Does it intend to continue with its unidimensional policy and hope to acquire a similar status as Pakistan, of a “major” ally of the United States? Will this require acceding further to demands such as joining the Proliferation Security Initiative of the US or enmeshing India in the National Missile Defence system?
The Vajpayee government has reduced India’s foreign policy to that of a supplicant of the United States which is detrimental to India’s national interests.