ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is eligible to buy excess US military hardware in Afghanistan and the United States is currently reviewing Islamabad’s request for the same.
In a statement issued by the US Embassy in Islamabad on Monday, it was stated that military equipment that has been determined to be excess can be made available through the worldwide excess defense articles (EDA) program, which is open to all eligible countries including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This equipment will not be brought back with US forces from Afghanistan as they redeploy elsewhere, it added.
The statement said that Pakistan has requested a variety of Excess Defense Articles (EDA), it said, adding the US is currently reviewing Pakistan’s request for the EDA. If approved, this EDA is likely to be sourced from US stock outside Afghanistan.
The US Department of Defense manages the process for identifying recipients for excess defense articles with State Department approval. The US assists Pakistan through many security cooperation programs to build partnership capacity.
It further said that decisions of who receives EDA are made on a case-by-case basis taking into consideration a range of factors including the need of potential recipients, regional security dynamics, how the recipient nations intend to use the equipment and the ability of an EDA recipient to sustain the equipment.
Final determinations of EDA are still being made, it added.
