India and US talking missile defense shields

India and the United States are said to have made a good amount of progress in their parleys on the providing the US missile defense shield system to India. Not something Pakistan would like, even without the current tensions between the two countries in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attack.

According to media reports, the two countries have taken the talks to a scientific and technical level. Indian officials had been shown computer simulations and had attended live missile tests, the reports added. 

The United States believes that India continues to be a valued partner and is ready to provide it with whatever it needs to protect itself. However, it is not yet clear whether India has made a decision on signing on. India has plans to make its own missile defense system, and it is probably under development at this point.

With reports of the parleys gaining momentum, Pakistan has apparently  begun steps take counter-measures to respond to such a development. It has been reported that Pakistan had been considering the possibility of such an outcome one day and is now preparing to respond.

The unique missile defence system had grabbed headlines when the US announced in December it had successfully tested its missile defence system in Alaska. It is believed that a team of scientists from India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) had also watched two live launches of missiles which were successfully intercepted and destroyed by the missile defense shield. The American administration is looking at introducing the system in Europe, using Poland and the Czech Republic to counter missiles from states such as Iran.

Though India and the US are inching closer to an alliance on this front too, apart from the added levels of economic relations, the development has not gone down well with countries such as Russia. Russia sees the system as a direct threat and has vowed to deploy missiles to neutralize the US shield.

Media reports from the Western world reiterated that talks gaining momentum would mean that the increasing strategic proximity of the US and India would be cemented, after the indo-US civil nuclear deal. America has said that the development which might lead to a deal fits into the overall strategic partnership that it envisages. 

It is not likely, however, that India would take a quick decision. There are political costs to signing up for the US missile defense shield – that would be seen as allying too closely with the US, not something which a segment of the Muslim population of India would approve. Also, there would be national interests at stake – would it be better to sign up with the US missile defense shielf which has already gone forward towards development and future deployment, or would it be better to develop an indigenous missile defense system on our own?