Agni 5 was launched from Abdul Kalam Island, off Odisha State in eastern India on Thursday morning, travelling for around 19 minutes and 3,000 miles. Nitin Gokhale, an independent national security analyst in New Delhi, said India did not previously have a missile capable of hitting “high-value targets” in China. “If there are hostilities, and if there are contingencies, then India has something which can deter China or at least make China think twice,” the report quoted him as saying. Once that induction process is complete, India will join an elite group of countries with access to intercontinental ballistic missiles, a list that includes China, Russia and the United States, experts say. China has criticised India’s development of the Agni 5 in the past.

Source: Pakistan Today January 18, 2018 17:15 UTC