Pakistan has “cost effective solutions” to India’s latest ballistic missile defence system and would also find a counter to its nuclear capable submarine, a media report said Wednesday quoting a senior official of the country’s top strategic body.
Addressing a conference on ‘Nuclear Deterrence and Strategic Stability in South Asia’ hosted by the Strategic Vision Institute (SVI), Adviser to the National Command Authority (NCA) Lt Gen (retd) Khalid Kidwai also said that Pakistan will remain unfazed as it has adequate response options that would disallow any disturbance of the strategic balance or strategic stability.
“The history of our strategic force development clearly indicates that Pakistan has never allowed this (strategic) balance to be disturbed to our disadvantage; we have always found effective solutions to redress induced imbalances from time to time,” Gen Kidwai was quoted as saying in by Dawn newspaper.
He said Pakistan would not follow India in developing a defence system against ballistic missiles because it found little value in such systems, but would continue to seek to redress the imbalances caused by India’s moves.
“Pakistan remains unfazed and as before, we have adequate response options which will disallow any disturbance of the strategic balance or strategic stability. That fundamental policy will prevail,” he said.
Talking in the context of India-Russia deal for S-400 missile systems, he said India had been working on the development of a multi-layer ballistic missile defence (BMD) system for over a decade now.
Besides the S-400 deal, India has large-scale cooperation with Israel for the development of the BMD.
“Much hype has been created around this particular technology induction and some have gone to the extent of calling it a game changer for South Asia,” he said, adding that “this was wrong”.