The Philippines link had asked NewDelhi for a clarification on the BrahMos missile it is buying from Indiadays after the defence ministry admitted to a missile having beenaccidentally fired into Pakistan.
Indian Ambassador to the Philippineslink S Kumaran said this in thecourse of a virtual talk on the partnership between the two countriesorganised by the Ananta Centre on April 5, reported Indian media.
Asked if there had been concern in Manila over the accidentallink missile firinglink Pakistani, Kumaran saidthat he had to address the issue with the country’s defence secretary.
“Yes, I did have an opportunity to interact with defence secretary [DelfinNegrillo] Lorenzana and I clarified and our Ministry of Defenceclarified…there was…I wouldn’t describe it as concern…there was obviously aquery and we responded with the fact that there was no technical issue asfar as we could understand it. And there is a technical enquiry underwayand we could have that cleared up once the information is available,”Kumaran said.
Lorenzana was the official who signed the $375-million deal for thePhilippine Marines, with India’s BrahMos Aerospace, for the former toacquire three batteries of the BrahMos cruise missile. India had called thedeal – signed earlier this year – its first for a major weapon system. ThePhilippines link the first countryto buy the BrahMos missile.
On March 11, Indian Ministry of Defence announced that the “high speedflying object” that Pakistan had earlier claimed entered its airspace onMarch 9, was in fact a missile that had been “accidentally fired” due to a“technical malfunction.”
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This missile is believed to be a BrahMos, even though the defence ministryhas not specified what variety of missile had been misfired.
In the talk, Kumaran was also asked if there was concern in Manila over thefact that the BrahMos missiles are made jointly by Russia – facingheightened global censure in the light of its attack on Ukraine.
“I think it’s very important for us to maintain the fact that this is anIndia-Philippines transaction… I don’t want to downplay the fact that theweapons system is jointly developed and manufactured by Russia and India.And there is a strong element of Russia’s support in the system, butdefinitely, this is an India-Philippines transaction. I do believe and amquite confident that we’ll be able to move ahead on that basis, on abilateral basis,” Kumaran said in reply.
The ambassador, however, sought to impress that the Philippines’ faith inthe missile system would stem from India’s use of it. “There’s definitely adegree of confidence in the system because of the fact that India uses itextensively. I did not get any sense that these two issues you highlighted[Russia and the accidental link firing]could potentially be a factor in taking this relationship forward,” Kumaranultimately said.