China warns India over deployment of BrahMos cruise missile in Arunachal Pradesh

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Delhi: China has warned that deployment of a special version of the BrahMos cruise missile in the Northeast would have 'negative influence' on stability along the border, as per a media report.

Chinese reaction comes weeks after the Indian government cleared the deployment of the missile.

The Cabinet committee on security, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had cleared the raising of a new regiment to be equipped with an advanced version of the BrahMos, earlier this month.

It is developed for mountain warfare at a cost of more than Rs 4,300 crore.

The new regiment is to be deployed in Arunachal Pradesh.

As per Hindustan Times, the official publication of People’s Liberation Army, PLA Daily, has said that the deployment of the supersonic cruise missiles could lead to counter-measures by China.

“India deploying supersonic missiles on the border has exceeded its own needs for self-defense and poses a serious threat to China’s Tibet and Yunnan provinces,” the commentary said.

“Deploying BrahMos missiles is bound to increase competitiveness and confrontation in Sino-Indian relations and bring a negative influence to stability of the region,” it added, as per the Daily.

Further, it was quoted as saying that the BrahMos missile “could increase suddenness and effectivity of attacks”, including “crushing blows on time-sensitive targets like missile launchers and solid targets like command centres”.

Moreover, the commentary by an expert from the PLA Navy’s engineering university also said that the missile’s “penetration capabilities” poses a threat to China’s border regions, but at the same time maintained that the BrahMos missile’s range of 290 km “cannot threaten China’s deep zones”.

BrahMos is a 290-km range supersonic land attack cruise missile.

The fire-and-forget missile has the capability to take on surface-based targets by flying a combined high-low trajectory and having a range of 290-km and a Mach 2.8 speed, is capable of being launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air against sea and land targets.

It is a joint venture between DRDO of India and NPOM of Russia.