US may stop sharing some intelligence with Pakistan

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: Reports in Delhi suggest that the US has stopped sharing some intelligence with Pakistan. In an interview published in the recent issue of a security journal ‘Force’, the Indian Navy chief, Admiral Suresh Mehta, said that India was building strategic relations and setting up an intelligence sharing mechanism with Americans while ensuring that the US would not share such intelligence with Pakistan.

He said India was building a relationship with US despite Pakistan. “We have a working relationship with the US and have asked them not to give intelligence to Pakistanis,” said the Indian Navy chief. He added that the US has put India and Pakistan in different commands of operation. “The whole of India works with Pacific Command headquartered in Hawaii. It is little awkward, but that’s how it is. Beyond that, it comes under Central Command, in which Pakistan falls,” he added.

Asked if Pakistan as a member of the US-led Coalition Maritime Campaign Plan poses a threat to India due to their intelligence sharing, the Indian Navy chief said, “We have reasons to believe that intelligence flow from US to Pakistan has switched off.” Admiral Mehta also revealed that India’s nuclear submarine project, nicknamed Advance Technology Vessel (ATV), was now near completion and will be in the waters in two years’ time. He also said his Navy was in the process of acquiring Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance Aircraft and was also looking to purchase Medium Range Maritime Reconnaissance (MRMR) aircraft.

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