By IOL South Asia Correspondent

NEW DELHI, May 28 (IslamOnline) - In a significant step towards easing the Indo-Pak military stand-off, Britain imposed an unofficial embargo on arms sales to both the warring nations. This includes the one billion pound Hawk-100 advanced jet trainers' sale to India. But Russia has stepped in with speedier supplies of arms to India.

According to British government sources, the issue is being treated on a case-by-case basis according to rules related to arms sales to areas of tension. The current move did not amount to any official "embargo."

The UK Defense Ministry disclosed May 26 that the government suspended the export license for 60 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers (AJT), being procured by India at an estimated cost of £1 billion. "The decision is consistent with government policy not to allow exports to areas where they may have destabilizing effect. In the present circumstances, it would be plainly wholly consistent with those criteria we set out that we would not provide weapons in places where there is a risk that those weapons would fuel tension," Robin Cook, leader of the House of Commons said.

Interestingly, the ban came when British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was to visit the Subcontinent. Straw arrived in Islamabad Tuesday, May 28, and flew into New Delhi evening, May 28, for a 24-hour stay.

The British government, however, refuted the charge that it is planning to apply arms "embargo" on the two countries, but it would be keeping a “very close watch” on the unfolding situation on borders. "There is a distinction between an embargo and the suspension of specific export licenses," an official from the British Department of Trade and Industry said, adding that there are no current plans as such for an arms embargo. The department deals with arms exports.

The Independent Sunday broke the news of the "ban" putting on hold the sale of 60 Hawk AJTs to India as well as affected £64 million worth of arms exports to India and £6 million worth of arms export to Pakistan. The “ban,” according to the newspaper, might be extended to “dual use” exports such as Land Rovers. Talks of growing Indo-Pak nuclear conflagration, especially from Pakistan, the most serious threat of a nuclear exchange since the Cuban missile crisis in the 1960s, prompted the “ban,” the paper said quoting analysts.

Britain' prompt action, though insignificant, came at a time India's main arms supplier and old ally, Russia, rushed to help New Delhi both diplomatically and militarily.

India invoked the 1993 Friendship Treaty and the 2000 Declaration of Strategic Partnership with Russia which provide for urgent consultations between the two countries in case of "threat to security of one or the other party" and provide for "close cooperation in jointly removing this threat".

Discussions have been going on through the Indian ambassador, K Raghunath, in Moscow. Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes met his Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov in Moscow last April. Both countries are reported to have expressed their satisfaction over "bilateral military-technical cooperation," a Russian acronym for arms trade.

According to the Russian Information Agency, Fernandes was on a visit to Russia to strike an arms deal which included two Russian-built nuclear submarines and Tupolev-22 long-range bombers. Besides, Fernandes also discussed a would-be $700 million deal to upgrade Russia's Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier for the Indian Navy.