Agni-V: China says India underplaying Agni, it can hit Europe

BEIJING: China’s strategic experts and the official media are trying to provoke western countries saying the Agni-V missile has a longer range than India would admit, and it can hit cities in Europe.

In comments that are obviously authorized by the defence ministry, Chinese experts said the Indian missile actually has a range of 8,000 kilometers and not the shorter range of 5,000 kms, as claimed by India. There are signs China will try to pressure the US and Russia not to sell missile guidance systems to India.

“The missile brings the whole of Asia, 70 per cent of Europe and other regions under its strike range and puts India among a select band of countries in the world to possess the technology of intercontinental ballistic missiles,” the official Xinhua news agency said in a dispatch published in dozens of Chinese newspapers. Another paper, the Global Times, even carried a map showing Moscow, Tehran and Jakarta among cities coming within the range of Indian missiles.

An expert at the PLA Academy of Military Sciences said the Agni-V actually has the potential to reach targets 8,000 kilometers away, according to the Communist Party-controlled Global Times. It quoted the researcher, Du Wenlong, saying the Indian government had deliberately downplayed the missile’s capability in order to avoid causing concern to other countries.

“According to China’s standard, an ICBM should have a range of at least 8,000 kilometers. The Agni-V’s range could be further enhanced to become an ICBM,” the paper quoted another expert, Zhang Zhaozhong, a professor with the People’s Liberation Army National Defence University, as saying.

CCTV even questioned India’s infrastructure capabilities. “The missile weighs 50 tonnes. It has no suitable loading vehicle to transport it. Due to India’s poor infrastructure, the country’s bridges and roads cannot bear the weight of the missile”. “So far, it can only be launched from a fixed position. Even though it was successful, it will take a long time to build an operational missile force,” it said.

In the Global Times interview, Zhang suggested the Agni-V would help India rise from a regional to a world power. China must work on developing defence systems against the threat of ballistic missile. “It is India’s goal to possess an ICBM, as the country seeks to improve its status and become a major world player. Without it, India will remain a regional power,” Zhang said.

“However, in the context of the eastward shift of global economic power and the changing Asian geopolitical pattern, India should cooperate with neighbouring countries and reduce its own persecution mania,” it said.