India raises objections over Pakistan F-16s refitting

India raised “strong objections” during official meetings with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Don

The disagreement over the F-16 package is one of a number of areas where New Delhi and Washington appear to be at odds, despite a period of active engagement, including the meetings with Mr. Lu in Delhi, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s visit to the U.S. for the IPEF ministerial meetings and bilateral trade talks, as well as a visit by U.S. Deputy Secretary of Treasure Wally Ademeyo at the end of August.

Apart from the government’s suspicions over the Biden administration re-kindling ties with Pakistan and the Shehbaz Sharif government, India also decided to stay out of the trade pillar of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, citing concerns any trade agreement may “discriminate” against developing economies over issues like environmental commitments, labour standards and digital laws.

In addition, India has not joined the U.S. push to build a G-7 led coalition on enforcing price caps on Russian oil. Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Mr. Putin at the Eastern Economic Forum that he attended virtually this week that India wants to step up its energy ties with Russia.

In the past few months, India has also rejected U.S. calls to change its vote on Russia at the UN, and refused to cut Russian energy purchases, instead increasing its oil imports from Russia about 50 times.

This week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Uzbekistan, where he will be joined by leaders of Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, Belarus, Pakistan, Central Asian States and possibly Syria, is unlikely to be seen positively by Washington as well.

Prohibitory orders were clamped and security tightened in Varanasi ahead of the district court order on Monday on the maintainability of the plea in the Gyanvapi mosque-Shringar Gauri case.

District Judge A.K. Vishvesh had last month reserved the order till September 12 in the communally sensitive matter.