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Missile test was delayed to avoid escalation
By C. Raja Mohan
NEW DELHI, JAN. 25. Today's test-firing of the short range Agni missile, a variant of Agni I, is part of a programme to develop a new missile system and is not aimed at increasing the current military pressure on Pakistan, highly-placed sources in the Government say.
The testing of the missile system, originally scheduled for mid-December, was postponed after the attack on Parliament House last month, the sources add. As India mobilised its military forces against Pakistan and launched a diplomatic offensive after December 13, the Government took a conscious decision to postpone the test to the third week of January. A missile test in December would only have added to the rising military temperature between India and Pakistan. The Government decided it was prudent to delay it than go ahead with the original schedule.
The test had to be postponed a second time for diplomatic reasons - the arrival of the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and the Chinese Premier, Zhu Rongji, in the third week of January in the capital. To avoid any misperception in Islamabad that the test was part of the current Indian military pressure on Pakistan, the Government had informed the Pakistan High Commission here about it earlier this week. The sources say it is part of an effort to maintain transparency in missile testing and is in consonance with the spirit of the agreements signed during the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to Lahore in February 1999. In a Memorandum of Understanding signed at Lahore, India and Pakistan had agreed to negotiate a number of confidence-building measures in the nuclear and conventional military arena. One of the proposed agreements was on prior notification of missile testing and not to direct missiles in each other's direction.
India had also informed the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - the U.S., Russia, China, France and Britain. Among the others taken into confidence were Japan, Germany and the European Union.
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