India on Thursday said the United States' reported move to sell sophisticated weapons like upgraded F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan would neither affect growing ties between New Delhi and Washington nor derail Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's peace initiative with Islamabad.
"This is not the first time the US is giving weapons to Pakistan. It has been doing so for the past 50 years and we should not be unduly concerned over this as Indian forces are currently well equipped to deal with any situation," Fernandes told newspersons after releasing a book Intelligence, A Security Weapon by former Intelligence Bureau chief D C Pathak.
On the timing of the proposed sales as New Delhi and Islamabad were preparing the ground for resuming dialogue, the defence minister opposed linking the talks to other issues.
He refused to comment on President Pervez Musharraf's reported remarks on the possibility of another Kargil-like incident.
He said New Delhi had chosen to take the path of negotiations vis-a-vis Islamabad and "We should stick to this course."
In an apparent reference to the controversy over alleged intelligence failure a the time of the Kargil intrusion, the defence minister said the practice of tracing setbacks in major incidents to intelligence failure had to end and it was time to generate better awareness on issues of national security.
The defence minister made a plea for an end to the 'turf war between the country's leading intelligence agencies'.
Without coordination among these agencies, major problems like the menace of terrorism, the recent spurt in suicide attacks could not be overcome, he said.
Quoting extracts from the book, Fernandes said top intelligence brass should stick to time tested principles of living and operating in anonymity.