Pakistan urges India to comply with stipulated timeline of flight testing of ballistic missiles

Pakistan on Thursday urged India to comply with the timeline stipulated in the pre-notification of flight testing of ballistic missiles as it took note of the first flight test of India’s indigenously developed Agni-5 missile. Responding to a question about India testing a missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that Islamabad had taken note of the Indian missile test on March 11 as New Delhi shared its advance notification to Islamabad.

However, she said India did not follow the three-day timeline stipulated in Article 2 of the Agreement on Pre-notification of the ‘Fight Testing of Ballistic Missiles’.

“The agreement on pre-notification we believe must be complied with in letter and spirit,” she said.

On Monday, India successfully carried out the first flight test of an indigenously developed Agni-5 missile capable of deploying multiple warheads under its ‘Mission Divyastra’, joining a select group of nations having such a capability.

The missile with ‘multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV)’ tested from APJ Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha accomplished the designed parameters, according to the Defence Ministry in New Delhi.

Agni-V missile has a range of up to 5,000 km and it can bring almost the entire Asia including the northernmost part of China as well as some regions in Europe under its striking range. India has already carried out several tests of Agni 5 but it was for the first time that the flight test was carried out with MIRV.