While the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is a joint development between India and Russia, the sale of the systems to Philippines is a transaction between the two countries and we will be able to move ahead on a “bilateral basis”, said Indian Ambassador in the Philippines Shambhu Kumaran, amid the global developments following the Russian war in Ukraine. Philippines was also given clarification on the accidental BrahMos missile launch recently.
“I did have an opportunity to speak to Philippines Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and our Ministry of defence has clarified... There was a query and we responded with the fact there was no technical issue as far as we could understand it. There is an inquiry underway, we will have that cleared once the information is available,” Mr. Kumaran said in a webinar on ‘The Philippines: India’s new Indo-Pacific partner’ organised by the Ananta centre. There is definitely a degree of confidence in the system because of the fact that India uses the system widely, he stated.
Stating that the decision to purchase it by Philippines was a high political decision, the Envoy said it was enabled by a combination of factors, but driven by the political understanding between the two countries.
