India and Pakistan add to arms tension

India and Pakistan both successfully test-fired short and long-range missiles capable of carrying conventional and nuclear warheads this week, disturbing the fragile peace between the two nuclear-capable neighbours.

India test-fired Agni (fire) II, its locally-developed, extended-range intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) to a distance of 2,000 km last Sunday carrying a 1,000 kg payload and two versions of Trishul (Trident), the short-range surface-to-air missile, capable of hitting targets 50 km away, off its eastern coast yesterday.

Pakistan responded to India's first missile test by firing Ghauri I, its own IRBM with a 1,500 km range on Wednesday also with a 1,000 kg warhead. It followed up a day later by test firing Shaeen (Eagle), its surface-to-surface missile with a 600 km range. Pakistani officials said an extended version of Shaeen that can reach 2,300 km awaits testing.

Each side provided the other with advance information of the tests under the Lahore Declaration which they signed last month to implement confidence-building measures to reduce the risk of an accidental nuclear war.

Officials from both countries claimed the rival missile arsenals, capable of hitting each other's cities and causing untold devastation, would not trigger a regional arms race and peace talks would continue. "There is no arms race, there is no danger," said the Indian Foreign Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh. Defence analysts, however, said the missile tests had a different focus for both countries.

While Pakistan's tests were India-centric, Angi II, armed with a nuclear warhead, would be India's deterrent against China, with whom it fought a war in 1962 over a still unresolved territorial dispute. India has frequently expressed concern over China supplying Pakistan with nuclear and missile components, a charge that is denied.

After India's multiple nuclear tests last May, the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, said fear of China's nuclear and missile capability and mistrust between the two had prompted his country to become a nuclear weapon state.

He also told parliament recently that India would build a small but "credible" nuclear deterrent and accept no restrictions on its research and development programmes, particularly missiles. "Agni is a symbol of that resurgent India which is able to say: `Yes, we will stand on our own feet'", Mr Vajapyee said earlier this week.

Indian defence officials, meanwhile, said good relations with Pakistan were predicated on both sides recognising the prospect of mutually assured destruction.