NEW DELHI, March 9 (UPI) -- India has raised grave concerns over U.S. plans to supply Pakistan with modern weapons and prodded Washington to ensure that the arms are used for defensive purposes.
"The United States should ensure that these weapons are not targeted against India," Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony told reporters in Pakistan.
Antony said he was so far not convinced by Washington's explanation that mounting military supplies to Pakistan were intended to bolster its neighbor's fight against terrorist outfits, including al-Qaida and Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
"Our past experience (with Pakistan fighting anti-India terror) is bitter," he was quoted saying by the daily Indian Express while inaugurating a new coast guard building in Vizhinjam.
Bent on bolstering its military might, India announced plans recently to spend up to $30 billion on its military by 2012.
Last month, for example it inducted a long-range nuclear-tipped missile into its armed forces, unveiling, also, a defense spending budget spiked by 24 percent since last year.
The moves have Pakistan fretting, with leading officials billing India's drive a "massive militarization."
"It is India's dangerous military doctrines and massive militarization that are matters of huge concern for regional stability, whereas Pakistan has always acted to protect the legitimate security interests," The News daily quoted Abdul Basit, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
Since winning independence in 1947, India has fought three wars with Pakistan. Fifteen years later, in engaged in a brief but bitter war over a border dispute that still remains unsettled.
"New war doctrines, tremendous boost to defense spending, introduction of new sophisticated weapons systems -- these are all elements that are prejudicial to regional security and stability," Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir recently warned.
In recent months, the United States unveiled plans to provide Pakistan with 12 unmanned spy drones to boost surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities over its border regions.
The plans were disclosed during a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who opted to sway Washington's key ally to do more to fight militant groups within its borders.
The RQ-7 Shadow drones, smaller than the armed Predator and Reaper aircraft, are about 11 feet long and have a wing-span of 14 feet. They feed video images to ground operators from the sensors and cameras mounted on the drones.
Unlike the Predator, the Shadow drones do not have missile capabilities to strike the targets they observe. Still, experts say, they represent the technological advancement in the growing U.S. military relationship with Pakistan.
While the United States has shared drone technology with allies, it has a controlled policy is sharing such hardware in volatile parts of the world.
U.S. officials have suggested that Pakistan also invest in specialized training to exploit the sophisticated hardware soon to be injected into its military.
