Earthquake-Battered Nation Accepts Offer From India... Sort Of

While there's no (immediate) threat of a nuclear exchange in this case, Pakistan and arch-rival India are at odds once again. This time, the issue is the help Pakistan desperately needs in the aftermath of an earthquake that killed as many as 80,000 people -- and how India can help.

As Aero-News reported last week, military and relief agencies from all over the world, including the US, are helping with the massive relief undertaking. India, too, has offered to help -- an offer that could lead to better diplomatic relations between the cold warriors at some point down the road.

Above all, Pakistan says it needs helicopters. India said it's willing to send fully crewed helos. Ahh, herein lies the rub.

Pakistan told India, in essence, thanks for the offer. Please send helicopters only.

Pakistan's foreign secretary Riaz Mohammed Khan called his Indian counterpart Shyam Saran "to convey that Pakistan would be willing to receive helicopters from India for relief work but without Indian pilots and crews", said an Indian foreign ministry statement quoted by the French news agency AFP.

India's response was polite, but firm. "Saran conveyed to his Pakistani counterpart that it would not be possible for India to provide helicopters, which are in service with its armed forces without pilots and crews," the statement said.

The problem is made only tougher by the fact that the quake devastated Kashmir Province -- the very region the two countries have battled over for decades. Saran reportedly told Khan his country remains willing "to undertake relief work in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK)' that lie close to the Line of Control (LoC)."

FMI: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir