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Pakistan predicts new arms race
27/02/2008 18:05 - (SA)
Augustine Anthony
Karachi - India's successful test firing of a nuclear-capable, submarine-launched missile, will trigger a new arms race in the region, Pakistan's navy chief said on Wednesday.
Nuclear armed Pakistan and India have fought three wars since their partition and independence in 1947, and nearly went to war a fourth time in 2002, but relations have improved since they launched a peace process in 2004.
India, already capable of launches from land and air, tested the new missile on Tuesday from a surfaced submarine - a step closer to firing from under the sea and matching countries such as the US, Russia, France and China.
"These developments...put nuclear weapons at sea and it is a very, very serious issue," navy chief Admiral Muhammad Afzal Tahir told reporters in Karachi.
"This is going to start a new arms race in the region," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.
Indian officials say the K-15, a two-stage missile with a top range of 700 kilometres, will be eventually deployed with a domestically built nuclear submarine, after further tests.
The two South Asian countries routinely test missiles in spite of their peace process.
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