Washington, October 29: US President Barack Obama today signed a USD 680-billion defence budget bill that provides USD 2.3 billion military assistance to Pakistan with tough condition to make sure that the funds are not squandered or diverted to affect the “balance of power in the region”.
Obama said the Defence Authorisation Bill for 2010 eliminates some of the waste and inefficiency in the defence process that will better protect the nation, troops and save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.
“The bill includes a commitment to the stability of Afghanistan and Pakistan, expanded programmes to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of rogue states and terrorists, and a reformed system of defence acquisition to save taxpayer money,” said House Majority Leader Steny H Hoyer.
The military aid money to Pakistan for the fiscal 2010 as mentioned in the bill has two major components – USD 1.
–PTI