Washington: The Indian government`s
decision to not include two US companies Lockheed Martin and
Boeing for its multi-billion fighter jet deal was a "sad
mistake", a former top American diplomat said Monday.
"My feeling is that the decision was a sad mistake,
and to some extent a serious one, but one that the United
States and the companies involved quite wisely have tried to
treat as part of the process of doing business," former US
Ambassador to India, Thomas Pickering, told the National
Bureau of Asian Research, a Washington-based think tank in an
interview.
"In business, one must come to know that you don`t win
them all; you stay in business because, in the long term, you
think you make better products. Only bad businessmen create
animosity among their customers.
"In the end, if it turns out that the European planes
cost more than either of the American options, then the Indian
military will have to answer for its decision," Pickering
said.
The real question is security, he said, and that
depends a lot on capacities.
"If a country is buying second-rate equipment to
maintain its security when it could procure first-rate
equipment, does this make any sense, even if the equipment is
manufactured by a country that would like to be a close ally.
But some of the distrust of the old days still hangs on,"
Pickering said.
PTI
