US To Monitor Pakistan’s F-16 Fighter Jets Operations, Releases $397 Million News24 –

The Trump administration has released $39.7 crore for Pakistan to carry out programmes sponsored by the United States. The aim behind this funding Pakistan is also to monitor the use of F-16 fighter jets. The US also wants to ensure that the use of F-16 should be against terrorism and it could not be used against India. 

In 2019, there was an allegation in Pakistan that it had used a US-manufactured F-16 against India as its jets entered Indian airspace over Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch. The US had provided these jets for anti-terror programmes and its use against India had violated the conditions which had raised concerns for the United States. 

President Donald Trump had stopped funding for 90 days except for a few. Egypt and Israel were the two nations that received funds from the United States for humanitarian assistance. However, current and former US officials said that funds have been granted for a few humanitarian assistance schemes. 

The news agency Reuters accessed a list released until February 13 of additional exceptions, which have been granted $5.3 billion. The US has identified a few programmes to which it will encourage self-funding. 

Earlier, During his closing speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday, US President Donald Trump criticised the USAID funding of USD 18 million funding for helping India with its elections.