ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

India will take steps to meet any threat, says MEA

India will do all that is necessary in accordance with its security perceptions in the wake of reports from Islamabad that Pakistan had successfully test-fired a surface-to-surface missile, an external affairs ministry spokesman said today.

''We will draw appropriate conclusions from the development, and take resolute steps to meet any threat to India's security'', the spokesman told reporters in New Delhi.

He said New Delhi was aware that Pakistan was clandestinely acquiring missiles or missile technology.

Asked if the process of official level Indo-Pak talks would receive a setback due to the development, he said, ''Both countries at the highest level have emphasised the need to continue to have dialogue.''

He said, ''We have to wait and watch...Both countries are in touch with each other through the diplomatic channel (for the resumption of talks)''.

The spokesman said Defence Minister George Fernandes had already reacted to the development. ''The defence minister's statement was the reaction of the government based on complete coordination between various departments'', he added.

Pakistan has launched a high-voltage campaign by highlighting the Prithvi deployment scare, though officially denied by India, to legitimise its missile programme and to give it a push.

Despite an official denial by India about the alleged deployment of Prithvi, Pakistan last year went ahead with the test-firing of the 800 km range Hatf III missile, which for the first time gave Islamabad the capability to target cities and strategic centres deep inside Indian territory.

Besides the Hatf series, China is also understood to have been assisting Pakistan in the development of Anza series of missiles in the past 15 years.

It is believed that China has collaborated with Pakistan in the full range of missile development activity from transfer of sub-systems, technologies for propellant production and inertial guidance systems related to the Hatf programme to the outright supply of M-11 missiles.

The Pakistani missile programme had shot into prominence suddenly in April 1988 when it was announced that the country had tested two types of ballistic missiles, Hatf I and Hatf II.

The Hatf I, with a range of 80 km, a circular error probability of 200 metres and understood to be capable of carrying a 500 kg payload, and Hatf II, an improved version having a longer range of 300 km, are also said to have been built with Chinese technology in the presence of Chinese technicians.

Fernandes also said earlier that it was hard to believe Pakistan's claim that the Hatf V had been developed by it indigenously, as it did not have the capability to do so.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report