Richard Boucher

OCT. 28 — The State Department on Oct. 28 denied it had ever called India a “rogue” nation. It also said that no decision had been reached about sale of F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan. State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher lashed out at a report in an Indian- American weekly newspaper in the U.S., that carried a headline in a recent edition saying India was considered a “rogue” nation by the United States.

He did not name the newspaper. The report was about visas for study in sensitive areas of technology for students coming from Pakistan, India, China, or Syria and Iran.

The usually calm Boucher snapped while dismissing the report — “I don’t know what you are talking about, but I have never said it nor have I ever seen it. I don’t read every Indian newspaper, nor do I trust every Indian newspaper. …I have never said anything like that, nor do I know of anybody in the State Department that has ever said anything like that,” repeated Boucher emphatically. He spoke on a range of issues relating to India, including on the sale of F-16s fighter aircraft to Pakistan. “No decisions have been made on the sale of F-16s to Pakistan.… The facts are no decisions have been made.” He also indicated that Washington had not taken a position on India’s desire for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. “The U.S. is waiting to see the report from the imminent persons group that’s been appointed and we will react when that comes out,” Boucher said. He also dismissed questions about news stories alleging that the cache of WMD’s from Iraq may have been moved to Syria and found their way to Pakistan.

“These sort of rumors have been around for a long time. As far as I know, they have never been corroborated,” he said.

Meanwhile, India’s warming relations with the military junta in Myanmar have come under criticism here in Washington with Senator Mitch McConnell criticizing New Delhi for hosting a leader from Rangoon. Boucher said he did not have any comment yet, but that Washington’s views regarding the military junta in Burma were clear. “Certainly, our views of the regime, the junta in Burma, have not changed, and in fact, have been reinforced our concerns recently by the changes that occurred there. So, certainly, our views about Burma and the government there have not changed at all, but whether we have any comment on other people hosting them, let me just check.”