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UTHAL, Pakistan, July 1 (AFP) - Pakistan is planning to buy sophisticated F-7MG fighter jets from China but the move should not affect relations with the United States, military ruler General Pervez Musharraf said Saturday. "Our air force needs more planes and we are certainly dealing with China to purchase them," Musharraf said after a groundbreaking ceremony for a coastal highway near Uthal in southern Baluchistan province. "We purchase a lot of things from China, with whom we have a very old relationship." He said the plans should not be read as a slight to the United States, which has cancelled a sale of F-16 fighters to Pakistan and has recently been harsh in its criticism of Islamabad's alleged tolerance of what it calls "terrorism". Washington is also understood to have shifted its South Asian allegiances from Pakistan to India after US President Bill Clinton's landmark trip to the sub-continent in March. "It is not true that we are developing our relations with the Chinese because the US has tilted towards India," Musharraf said. "It's not correct that America is tilted towards India. It is also not correct that the United States has forgotten Pakistan after President Clinton's visit to India. "The US has bilateral arrangements with India. They have separate interests with Pakistan and we will continue with this interest." Musharraf last week described the completion of the Chinese-aided Chashma nuclear power plant near Minawali in central Punjab province as "a major milestone in Pakistan's peaceful pursuit of nuclear technology." China has been a strong ally to Pakistan over the years in a bid to counter the equally cozy relationship between India and Russia. Pakistan and India, archrivals since their partition in 1947, are the world's newest nuclear states. Two of their three wars, as well as a bitter border conflict last year, have been over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir. On Thursday Russian jet manufacturer Sukhoi told the ITAR-TASS news agency that Russia would deliver 40 Su-30 fighter jets to India as part of a 1.8-billion-dollar deal by 2003. Islamabad signed the deal in 1989 to buy 28 F-16 jets from the United States but the delivery was cancelled as part of a 1990 US arms embargo over Pakistan's nuclear program. Reports here have said Pakistan wants at least 50 of the Chinese jets, which were unveiled in 1996. Islamabad has repeatedly said it does not want to enter an arms race with New Delhi but is determined to maintain an effective deterrent. Earlier this year India boosted its defense budget by almost 30 percent but Pakistan last month announced only a modest increase of some 10 percent in real terms for the year starting July 1. |
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