Canada may end its 11-year arms embargo on Pakistan so that it can take on the resurgent Taliban challenge in the country's north-west.
Canada's Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who is on a visit to Pakistan where Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
asked his country to end the arms embargo to help it fight the raging Taliban insurgency.
MacKay told the
Toronto Star in an interview from Islamabad that Canada is considering ending its 11-year embargo on the sale of military technology to Pakistan.
"Doing military business in the future, and trade in particular, is something that is under consideration,"
MacKay said after meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari. However, he added, "We are not there yet".
Canada had prohibited military exports to Pakistan in May, 1998, after the country's first nuclear weapons test. MacKay said that he and Pakistani defence officials also agreed to resume a co-operation deal, the Military Training Assistance Programme.
Canada has nearly three thousand troops in Afghanistan's restive Kandahar province as part of the NATO forces. It is worried about the increasing influence of Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan.Canada considering ending arms embargo against Pakistan