Pakistan to help modernize PH military

PAKISTANI Ambassador to the Philippines Dr. Imtiaz Ahmad Kazi on Wednesday said Pakistan was willing to help the Philippines modernize its military.

“Pakistan can always share equipment as well as training facilities, and we would look forward to that,”

Kazi said during a roundtable with The Manila Times.

Kazi said Pakistan was eyeing to export to the Philippines arms, ammunition, drones and other security-related equipment.

“But this needs to have an MOU (memorandum of understanding) finalized so we would have it institutionalized,” Kazi added. The ambassador said the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in

Kamra has been a producer of topgrade warplanes that include the JF-17 Thunder, a fourth-generation multirole combat aircraft developed jointly by Pakistan and the Chengdu Aircraft Corp. of China.

Kazi said the JF-17 Thunder combat aircraft, which entered service in 2007, could outperform the American F-16 fighter jet.

Pakistan started producing its own warplanes without assistance from China in 2009.

“We have some of the best equipment manufactured in the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra, and [the Philippine Air Force] is looking for some of those,” Kazi said.

The Pakistani ambassador said his country was keen to share its capabilities with allied countries, including the Philippines, which he described as a “brotherly country” because like Pakistan, it, too, was balancing relations with the United States and China.

We can share [our developed equipment and capabilities] with all friendly countries to whatever extent we can for the interest of promotion of peace and to eliminate terrorism,” Kazi said.