West German Defence Cooperation and Secret Arms Exports to Pakistan in the 1960s

Rajendra K. Jain
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Rajendra K. Jain: Rajendra K. Jain was formerly Professor and Chairperson at the Centre for European Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Visiting Professor at Warsaw University (February–May 2022). He was formerly Visiting Humboldt Foundation Fellow/Professor at Constance, Freiburg, Leipzig and Tübingen universities as well as Visiting Professor at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (Paris), the Asia-Europe Institute (Kuala Lumpur), and ICCR Professor of Contemporary India at Leuven University (2015). He has been the first Jean Monnet Chair in India. He has most recently published India and Central Europe (editor, Palgrave, 2021) and India, Europe and Asia (editor, Palgrave, 2021).

India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, 2022, vol. 78, issue 3, 491-508

Abstract: Based almost entirely on declassified government documents, this article seeks to provide, for the first time, a comprehensive evaluation of the Federal Republic of Germany’s (FRG) defence cooperation and the transfer of small arms, ammunition and missiles under a 1962 secret defence agreement as well as the saga of the clandestine transfer of aircraft and (unsuccessful) export of tanks to Pakistan in the 1960s. West Germany was well aware that the real motivation behind the Pakistani acquisition of arms and ammunition was to use them in a fratricidal conflict with India. An ‘influential’ Pakistani lobby, working assiduously in the West German Federal Foreign Office and West German Federal Ministry of Defence, was responsible for the sale of the F-86s. The FRG’s refusal of large-scale deliveries to Pakistan was largely because of apprehensions that an Indian recognition of the German Democratic Republic’s actions would have a cascading effect on developing countries.

Keywords: Federal Republic of Germany; Pakistan; India; arms exports; South Asia; United States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:indqtr:v:78:y:2022:i:3:p:491-508

DOI: 10.1177/09749284221108322

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