Pakistan will buy at least 30 F-7 Mig fighter jets from China to boost its air defenses, incoming Air Force chief Air Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir said Wednesday.
"At the moment we're looking at about 30 to 40 (Migs) but later we may buy some more," he said, without elaborating on their price or when the deal would go through.
Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf has previously said the purchase was being considered and should not be read as a slight to the United States, which has cancelled a sale of F-16 fighters to Pakistan.
Islamabad signed a 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.
Islamabad has repeatedly said it does not want to enter an arms race with New Delhi but is determined to maintain an effective deterrent. Both countries tested nuclear weapons in 1998.
Earlier this year India boosted its defense budget by almost 30 percent but Pakistan announced only a modest increase of some 10 percent in real terms for the year starting July 1, 2000.
India last month signed a three-billion-dollar defense package with Russia, including 310 T-90 tanks, 140 Sukhoi-30 jets and the aircraft carrier "Admiral Gorchkov," with 46 naval MiG-29 fighters still under negotiation.
Pakistan has already started taking delivery of 40 Mirage-V fighter jets from France in an estimated 120-million-dollar deal inked in 1996.
Speaking on the sidelines of a major international arms exhibition here, Mir said Pakistan was close to exporting its own aerial technology.
He said several Middle Eastern countries had shown interest in the newly developed Super Mushak training plane -- KARACHI (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
