Pakistan has rejected a report that it sold arms and ammunition to Ukraine to secure a crucial rescue package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said the Intercept reported Pakistan had provided arms to US. Cash-strapped Pakistan is believed to have planned to seek US support for a $3 billion deal with the IMF in late June to avoid default.
The Intercept, an investigative website specialising in investigations, reported on Sunday that “secret Pakistani arms sales to the US helped secure a controversial IMF bailout earlier this year”.
The report said that the arms sales were “made for the purpose of supplying the Ukrainian military — marking Pakistani involvement in a conflict it had faced US pressure to take sides on”.
Since the Russia-Ukraine crisis began early last year, Pakistan has struggled to maintain a balance in its relations with the Kremlin and Washington. Dawn News quoted Baloch as saying:
“The IMF Standby Arrangement for Pakistan was successfully negotiated between Pakistan and the IMF to implement difficult but essential economic reforms. Giving any other colour to these negotiations is disingenuous.”
Baloch notes that Pakistan has a policy of “strict neutrality” in the conflict between the two countries and has not supplied them with any arms or ammunition. She claimed:
“Pakistan’s defence exports are always accompanied by strict end-user requirements.”
In July, during a visit to Pakistan, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba denied similar reports that the cash-strapped country was supplying arms to Ukraine to support its armed forces during the ongoing conflict with Russia, Dawn has reported. He clarified that the two countries had no agreement to supply arms and ammunition. Former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also expressed a similar view, saying that Pakistan had not signed any agreement with Ukraine on military supplies since the beginning of the war.
