India says that there is sustained interest among countries of the Middle-East, South East Asia and Africa in purchasing the BrahMos but negotiations are taking time as there are a number of crucial issues that need to be addressed before exporting what has been touted as the world’s deadliest missile system

BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture between India and Russia, has developed the world's fastest supersonic cruise missile. The lethal rocket may now be exported globally — an export order could significantly upgrade military capabilities of any country purchasing the missile, even as it would raise concerns in China.

As per a news report on the American defence news website defensenews.com the joint Indian and Russian missile BrahMos, a versatile supersonic missile, is on display at IDEX and a representative says its targeting both naval and coastal defence requirements in the Middle East and Africa.

In February 2018, a BrahMos spokesperson told CNBC at this year's Singapore Airshow that discussions were underway "with a number of countries," adding that the company would only sell to "responsible" nations friendly with both New Delhi and Moscow.

According to officials familiar with the development, many Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, are reportedly interested in purchasing the state-of-the-art BrahMos missile, which has a flight range of nearly 300 kilometres. The extended version with a range of 700 km may be offered for exports.

The missile billed as “the world’s fastest cruise missile” is in wide use in the Indian military as a strike and anti-ship weapon, and the Russian military is working with a prototype of the missile, the representative said.

The missile is also on offer in North American markets, but the representative did not elaborate on which countries the company was targeting.

"There is a lot of interest particularly on this missile (BrahMos)… definitely lots of interest. On that, a lot of discussions are also going on. Many things are being discussed within the government and on the other end, with governments which want to buy them. Decision making can sometimes be frustratingly long drawn but the interest is sustained. Sometimes it is the question of the cost being negotiated, but interest on Indian missiles is definitely growing and we are addressing it. We want to able to export it to friendly nations," defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman had reiterated during an interactive session at the annual summit of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) 2018 in New Delhi.

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