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Pakistan Makes Arms Sale Push In Arab World
ABU DHABI, March 19 (News Agencies) - Its credibility in the Islamic world bolstered by a nuclear weapons capability, Pakistan has launched a major sales drive at the Middle East's biggest arms fair in Abu Dhabi.
Pakistan's nuclear capability "shows we have the technology level, such as for delivery systems. That's where the spin-offs come," said Major General Syed Ali Hamid, head of Pakistan's Defense Export Promotion Organization (DEPO).
In Pakistan's largest participation in an arms exhibition abroad, 12 companies are taking part under the DEPO umbrella in the five-day Abu Dhabi fair that opened on Sunday.
DEPO itself was set up only in January 2001 after Pakistan's first arms fair was held in Karachi last November.
Pakistan, which was applauded in the Arab press for producing the so-called "Islamic" bomb that was tested in May 1998, "now feels it is in a position to offer mature products in the international field," Hamid said.
But "strategic systems such as missiles are not a product that's on sale. We abide by international treaties and make it very clear that that's not available on the open market," he stressed.
Hamid explained that Pakistan, under on and off international sanctions ever since the 1960s, had been forced to hone its own defense technology, with assistance from France and China.
In 2002, Pakistan will be in a position to meet orders for the Al-Khalid tank, a prototype of which was tested last year, he said, adding his country also offered the capability to upgrade weaponry such as rocket guidance systems and missiles.
Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz in May 1999 viewed a display of Pakistani-made defense equipment including tanks during a visit to a heavy industries complex near Islamabad.
The Taxila complex, along with other major defense production organizations in Pakistan, builds and modernizes tanks, armored recovery vehicles, advanced ammunition and armored personnel carriers.
"They are making a serious push. They want to establish relationships with their friends in the Islamic world," said defense analyst Paul Beaver of the London-based Jane's Information Group.
"They see a market for their products and they are very competent," notably in ordnance such as shells and bombs, said Beaver. They are "very rapidly becoming world class".
On the naval side, Pakistan is offering Arab countries a midget submarine that has been developed in cooperation with Italy and a missile boat built in cooperation with the Chinese, said Hamid.
"Due to the peculiarity of the Gulf and Red Sea, which have shallow waters like the Baltic, there is no need for long platform vessels with longer ranges," the officer explained.
Pakistan is the only Muslim country to have sent naval ships to the Abu Dhabi show, deploying a destroyer and an Agosta submarine.
Gulf countries, notably the United Arab Emirates that has an island dispute with Iran, have been in the market for submarines ever since Tehran acquired three Kilo-class submarines from Russia.
Also on display in Abu Dhabi are Pakistani unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), including the Bravo, which has an 80-kilometer (50-mile) range and has been in service on border patrol and law enforcement for the past 18 months.
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