US approves military sales of $125 million to support Pakistan’s F-16 fighter jets

The Pentagon on Friday notified the United States Congress that it had decided to approve military sales of $125 million to Pakistan that would include 24x7 end-use monitoring of the F-16 fighter jets in the country.

New Delhi: Trump administration to provide technical support of $ 125 million for Pakistan's F-16 aircraft fleet. The development came days after Prime Minister Imran Khan's ice-breaking visit to Washington where he met President Donald Trump.

Approval to support US-built aircraft was approved by the State Department on Friday and announced simultaneously by the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency.

The Pakistan government has requested the US government for the continuation of technical support. The request list also includes logistics support to assist in the oversight of operations in support of the Pakistan Peace Drive advanced F-16 programme.

"The potential sale will support US foreign policy and national security by protecting US technology through the continued presence of US personnel that provide 24/7 end-user monitoring," the State Department said.

On January 2018 Washington halted all foreign military support programmes to Pakistan for not helping the US in accomplishing its objective of ending the war in Afghanistan.

But during Khan's July 20-23 visit to Washington, both sides announced they were now on the same page on Afghanistan.

Pakistan government has promised that they would soon call Taliban leaders to Islamabad to persuade them to hold direct talks with the US President Donald Trump.