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Pakistan Tests Missile, India Calls It Routine, U.S. Wants Both to Step Back
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Powell
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ISLAMABAD, May 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Pakistan said Friday it notified India that it would conduct missile tests in the next few days, described by India as "routine". With the two countries on the brink of war, the U.S. said it would pressure both sides to "step back".
A Pakistani government spokesman said the tests had "nothing to do with the current situation", reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The spokesman said several countries had been informed about the tests, including India, Iran and the United States, "as is the practice".
For its part, India confirmed it was informed by Pakistan that it planned to conduct "routine" short- and medium-range missile tests between Saturday and Tuesday. However, New Delhi attacked the tests as "antics", AFP reported.
"We have been informed by Pakistan that it plans to carry out a series of missile tests comprising short- and medium-range missiles, and that appropriate notifications have been issued for these tests, scheduled for May 25 and 28," a statement by the Indian External Affairs Ministry said.
"This is routine and not central to the current situation," the statement added.
"What is and what we would expect and judge by is the specific action taken by Pakistan to stop cross-border infiltration and terrorism," it said.
"That is why the government of India is not particularly impressed by these missile antics, clearly targeted at the domestic audience of Pakistan."
But the Pakistani government spokesman said: "We have not undertaken tests (recently), while India has been taking such tests."
Meanwhile, describing the crisis between India and Pakistan as being at a "very critical point," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday that the United States would pressure both sides to "step back."
"It's a very dangerous situation but I hope both sides realize they are at a very critical point," Powell said in Moscow on the sidelines of a U.S.-Russia summit.
"We will get them to step back," he said.
Powell said he spoke earlier in the day with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and planned to telephone later Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh.
Commenting on the planned Pakistani tests, the editor of Pakistan's Defense Magazine, Ikram Sehgal, told AFP: "This is to indicate to India that Pakistan has a very active missile program.
"And also to convey to the Indian people that Pakistan is not without its own offensive weapons," he said.
"The timing of these tests is clearly to raise the morale of a nation which is threatened by a neighbor."
India and Pakistan, both armed with nuclear weapons, have been lurching towards war in recent days over the disputed Himalayan kingdom of Kashmir.
The Pakistani analyst said: "Conducting missile tests is not conducting nuclear tests and yet conveys a message, a very strong message, that you have the means to deliver nuclear weapons.
"These tests were long overdue because Pakistan had not conducted such tests for the past 15 months while the Indians conducted such tests in December and January," added Sehgal.
"We could have done tit-for-tat but we did not do. This is much more meaningful. Pakistan's missile capability is enough to reach any Indian city."
Earlier Friday, tensions between the two countries were seen to be easing, with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee heading for a three-day vacation at a mountain resort and stock exchanges in both countries bouncing back from lows induced by war fears.
The latest escalation of tension between the perennial rivals followed the deaths of 35 people in an attack last week in Indian Kashmir, which India blamed on Pakistan-based independence claiming Kashmiris.
India threatened military action, prompting an intensive international diplomatic drive to calm tensions
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