THAAD Missile Intercepts IRBM Target During Test | FTT-18 | 7/12/2017

India successfully launches canister version of Agni V "China Killer" ICBM

  

Marking another technological milestone in the country’s missile programme, the maiden canister-based trial of India’s most potent strategic missile, Agni-V was successfully carried out for its full range of more than 5,000 km from the Wheeler Island, off the Odisha coast on Saturday.

  A DRDO missile technologist who was associated with the launch described it as a grand success and said it was a perfect launch. Another missile technologist said it would be the footprint for future configuration of Agni-V.

India-Japan strategic talks this week

India and Japan bilateral relations will come under extensive review at the 8th strategic dialogue to be held here this week with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj co-chairing the meeting with her Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida who will be paying an official visit from January 16 to 18.Kishida, who embarks on a four-nation trip, will reach here en route France, Belgium and Britain, for the January 17 dialogue, the first such engagement after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe retained power in a snap poll late last year.

Ahead of the visit, the minister was quoted by domestic Kyodo news agency as saying that during his trip to France, Kishida plans to discuss the fight against terrorism with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius in Paris.Condemning the incident in Paris, he said: “We must never tolerate vicious terrorism and challenges against the freedom of speech and the press.

Sharing this view with the international community, we must face up to the fight against terrorism.”Referring to the purpose of the four-nation tour starting Thursday, Kishida said: “I would like to take this opportunity to send a message to the world as to how our country will contribute to the stability and prosperity of the international community and the region, and how we will try to address global challenges” in partnership with the four countries plus the European Union.“Both sides will review all aspects of the bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest,” a spokesperson for the MEA said.

Will Chinese View US President Obama As A Diminished Figure?

     

    The last time President Barack Obama went to China, five years ago, he was a political supernova from a nation with a depleted, debt-ridden economy. When he returns to Beijing on Monday, he will be a political casualty from a country with a resurgent economy. 

White House officials hope the later distinction will outweigh the earlier one when Obama meets with President Xi Jinping before traveling on to Myanmar and Australia. But they are likely to be disappointed: China, analysts say, is likely to dwell more on Obama's electoral reversals than on the comparatively robust American recovery. 

China, Pakistan Ink 20 Pacts, Boost Ties

"Iron friends" China and Pakistan today inked 20 agreements amounting to Chinese investment reportedly worth about $46 billion, as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held wide-ranging talks with the leadership here. 

Sharif, who is here to take part in the neighbourhood leaders conference being organised by China on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders meeting, held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. 

Chinese Subs Challenge India's Control Over Sea Routes

     China has said that submarines docking in Colombo are routine calls and are for refueling in anti-piracy missions in Gulf of Aden. But this is ridiculous. As the ultimate offensive weapon, even the thought of using submarines in anti-piracy ops is overkill. For that matter, even destroyers, frigates and corvettes are not cost-effective solutions in such missions. Modern offshore patrol vessels and special forces would be more than adequate.

China to have 10,000-ton coast guard vessel in East China Sea by next year

     China is likely to deploy its first 10,000-ton coast guard vessel to patrol the disputed waters of the East China Sea, where is currently has a territorial dispute with Japan who administers a small group of islands called the Senkakus (Chinese claim them as the Diaoyutai and Taiwan as the Diaoyu). This should begin next year according to Tokyo's Yomiuri Shimbun.

China conducted two anti-satellite tests: Voice of Russia

     China had conducted two anti-satellite tests recently with its new laser technology, Konstantin Sivkov, the first deputy head of the Moscow-based Academy of Geopolitical Problems, told the Voice of Russia on Nov. 6.

Sivkov said that several exercises against tank and unmanned aerial vehicles had been launched by the PLA with its new laser weapons. The China Academy of Engineering Physics' low-altitude air defense system designed to intercept aircraft below 500 meters was used in several drills against drones. Yi Jinsong from the China Academy of Engineering Physics told the Beijing-based Sina Military Network that unmanned aerial vehicles can be operated by terrorists against the Chinese homeland.

PLA incursion into India foiled by Modi's beefed-up border police

Soldiers of the People's Liberation Army recently made a two-pronged simultaneous incursion into the Indian-controlled region of Ladakh, according a report in the Times of India on Nov. 3.

A source from the Indian government said these incursions were launched by the PLA simultaneously along the road built beside Pangong Lake in eastern Ladakh and on the northern bank of the lake in an area 168 kilometers from Leh on Oct. 22.

The Indian-Tibetan Border Police responded to the PLA intrusions immediately, first intercepting the Chinese troops aboard their boats at the line of actual control, the demarcation line between Indian and Chinese territory agreed upon in a 1993 agreement between the two nations.

PLA visits to Sri Lanka port present an issue for India

Chinese vessels' frequent visits to the port of Colombo in Sri Lanka are causing concern for India as it engages with Sri Lanka in a joint military action called Exercise-Mithra Shakthi in the later country's Uva-Kudaoya training school, reports Huanqiu, website of China's nationalistic tabloid Global Times, which translated the original report from the Times of India.