India missile test to start arms race: Pakistan

KARACHI (Reuters) - India's successful test-firing of a nuclear-capable, submarine-launched missile will trigger a new arms race in the region, Pakistan's navy chief said on Wednesday.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan and India have fought three wars since their partition and independence in 1947, and nearly went to war a fourth time in 2002, but relations have improved since they launched a peace process in 2004.

India, already capable of launches from land and air, tested the new missile on Tuesday from a surfaced submarine -- a step closer to firing from under the sea and matching countries such as the United States, Russia, France and China.

"These developments...put nuclear weapons at sea and it is a very, very serious issue," navy chief Admiral Muhammad Afzal Tahir told reporters in Karachi.

"This is going to start a new arms race in the region," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan. Indian officials say the K-15, a two-stage missile with a top range of 700 km (450 miles), will be eventually deployed with a domestically built nuclear submarine, after further tests.

The two South Asian countries routinely test missiles in spite of their peace process.

(Reporting by Augustine Anthony; Editing by Robert Birsel)