New Delhi: Pakistan has urged the international community to condemn India’s ‘Mission Shakti’, the success of which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in the day.
Pakistan said it would urge the international community to come up with laws to prevent military threats in space.
“We hope that countries which have in the past strongly condemned demonstration of similar capabilities by others will be prepared to work towards developing international instruments to prevent military threats relating to outer space,” said a Pakistani government spokesperson.
In a surprise address to the nation, PM Modi said India had for the first time used an anti-satellite missile and shot down a live satellite 300 km in space. Modi announced that India has become only the fourth country after US, Russia, China to have this capability.
Pakistan even compared ‘Mission Shakti’ to ‘tilting at windmills’ in the 1605 novel Don Quixote, which means fighting fictitious enemies. The novel is written by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.
“Space is the common heritage of mankind and every nation has the responsibility to avoid actions which can lead to the militarization of this arena. We believe that there is a need to address gaps in the international space laws with a view to ensuring that no one threatens peaceful activities and applications of space technologies for socio-economic development,” the Pakistani official said.
Also read: India set to develop ‘credible’ space deterrence after A-SAT test without fear of sanctions
China’s reaction
China Wednesday said it hopes peace and tranquility are maintained in the outer space.
“We have noticed reports and hope that each country will uphold peace and tranquility in outer space”, said the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
‘Test not directed against any country’
The Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement that ‘Mission Shakti’ was not directed against any country.
“The test is not directed against any country. India’s space capabilities do not threaten any country and nor are they directed against anyone. At the same time, the government is committed to ensuring the country’s national security interests and is alert to threats from emerging technologies. The capability achieved through the anti-satellite missile test provides credible deterrence against threats to our growing space-based assets from long range missiles, and proliferation in the types and numbers of missiles,” the statement stated.
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