India became the 4th country in the world to test an anti-satellite weapon after Russia, the USA, and China. Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, in his solemn address to the nation, called it a historical moment.
The Chief of the Vesti Bureau in India, Dmitry Melnikov, has the details.
The unplanned and urgent address to the nation that Narendra Modi announced yesterday on Twitter made the nation anxious. Everyone was trying to guess: is it going to be about a war, a cancellation of elections, or about yet another denomination, as it happened during the last address of this kind. Nobody guessed right. After an urgent meeting with the members of the Security Council, the Prime Minister went live to announce the successful completion of Mission Shakti. Now, India has also its own anti-satellite defense system.
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India: "Some time ago, our scientists struck a live satellite at the distance of 200 miles up in the space, on a low orbit. Today, India became one of the space-faring superpowers. Until now, only 3 countries in the world, the USA, Russia, and China, have had such capabilities. India has become the fourth of these countries".
3 minutes after the launch, and the missile successfully destroyed a target satellite at a height of 200 miles. Experts assume that it was a time-expired Indian satellite. Modi calls it "an evident success of the Indian scientists," emphasizing that the weapon was created for exclusively defensive purposes.
The MFA of Pakistan, however, immediately issued a statement condemning militarization of Space, as well as calling India’s boasting Don Quijote's fights against the windmills. Later the same day, when talking to the scientists, the Prime Minister reminded that possession of an anti-satellite missile takes the country to a new level.
Narendra Modi: "By succeeding in this, we told the whole world that we're as good as anyone else".
Why did they choose this moment and this time for this address? This is the question from the opposition. As it's just 2 weeks prior to the national election and such bold announcements can be regarded as political agitation, as the ruling party's opponents insist.
"For the sake of Mother India," repeated Narendra Modi 3 times at the end of the address, as if he was answering possible questions of this sort.
The leader of the Indian National Congress, Rahul Gandhi, the main Modi's opponent at the upcoming election, congratulated the Prime Minister on the International Day of the Theater, which coincided with the date of the test.
Meanwhile, the Central Election Commission has started an inspection which may show that it's not quite legal in India to strike satellites and test missiles not long before the election.
Dmitry Melnikov, Ivan Malyshev, Vesti from Delhi.
