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US pressure halts test-firing of India's Agni-III missile

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, May 16, IRNA
India-Agni-US pressure

Indian Defence minister Pranab Mukherjee, on the sidelines of a defence accountants' conference on Monday, admitted for the first time that the government had stayed the test-firing of the Agni-III missile because "as responsible members of the international community, we want to keep our international commitments on non-proliferation."
His remarks clearly indicate that the government has abandoned the program altogether.

United States pressure on India to adhere to "international norms" to get the US Congress' approval on the civilian nuclear energy agreement has worked, a leading English daily, `Asian Age', reported here today.

Mukherjee told reporters: "We have no pressure on us. Nor are we putting any political pressure. It is just that we have decided to have self-imposed restraint."
Agni-III has been ready for test-firing since January.

Defence Research and Development Organization chief M Natarajan made the announcement, cautioning that the decision as to "when it will be fired, how it will be fired and where it will be fired is a decision to be taken at a higher level."
That has not happened, however, with the defence minister now finally admitting that the green light to test-fire was not given by the government because of its commitment to non-proliferation.

Natarajan, a day before, had again sought to remind the nation that Agni-III was ready and that the DRDO had cleared all technical parameters for the test.

Defence scientists have been pointing out that a decision to abandon the Agni-III program, which now appears to be the case, might prevent India from ever acquiring a credible nuclear deterrent.

The Americans have always been uneasy about India's Agni program, and in 1994 persuaded it to suspend testing of the missile afer three test flights.

Agni-III is the third member of the family and has been developed with a 3,000-km range as against Agni-I, with a 800-900 km range, and Agni-II, with a 2,000 km range.

Test-firing of the missile has been postponed twice and could be aborted altogether.

Agni-III was developed as a surface-based, solid and liquid propellant ballistic missile.

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