India has test launched its first long-range missile capable of reaching deep into China and as far as Europe, with a scientist at the launch describing the mission as successful.
"It has met all the mission objectives," S P Dash, director of the test range, told the Reuters news agency on Thursday. "It hit the target with very good accuracy."
The launch of the Agni V, which can carry nuclear warheads and has a range of 5,000km, will thrust the country into an elite club of nations with intercontinental nuclear defense capabilities.
Only the UN Security Council permanent members - China, France, Russia, the United States and Britain - along with Israel, have such long-range weapons.
Harsh Pant, a defense expert at King's College, London, described the launch as a "confidence boost", adding that the mission "signaled India's arrival on the global stage [and] that it deserves to be sitting at the high table".
The launch came as India nears completion of a nuclear submarine that will increase its ability to launch a counter strike if it were attacked. Delhi insists its nuclear weapons programme is for deterrence only.
One of the fast emerging economies known as BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - India is keen to play a larger role on the global stage and has been clamoring for a permanent seat on the Security Council.
It has in recent years emerged as the world's top arms importer as it rushes to upgrade equipment for a large but outdated military.
China's reaction
There was no immediate reaction or criticism from world powers for the launch, which was flagged well in advance, but China noted the launch with disapproval.
"The West chooses to overlook India's disregard of nuclear and missile control treaties," China's Global Times newspaper said in an editorial published before the launch, which was delayed by a day because of bad weather.
"India should not overestimate its strength," said the paper, which is owned by the Chinese Communist Party's main mouthpiece the People's Daily.
India has not signed the non-proliferation treaty for nuclear nations, but enjoys a de facto legitimacy for its arsenal, boosted by a landmark 2008 deal with the United States.
On Wednesday, NATO said it did not consider India a threat while the US state department urged restraint and said India's non-proliferation record was "solid".
India lost a brief Himalayan border war with its larger neighbor, China, in 1962 and has ever since strived to improve its defenses. In recent years the government has fretted over China's enhanced military presence near the border.
Experts said the launch could trigger a renewed push from within India's defense establishment to build a fully fledged intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) programme capable of reaching the Americas.
"Policy-wise it becomes more complicated from now on, until Agni V, India really has been able to make a case about its strategic objectives, but as it moves into the ICBM frontier there'll be more questions asked," said Pant.
PHOTO CAPTION
The launch makes India part of an elite club with intercontinental nuclear defence capabilites [AFP]
Aljazeera