New Delhi warned against shifting nuclear balance

Adviser to the National Command Authority (NCA) Lt Gen (Retd) Khalid Kidwai has asserted that Pakistan will not allow India to create a strategic imbalance in South Asia.

He has warned that New Delhi is shifting toward a more ready, potentially first-use capable nuclear force able to launch a strike with virtually no warning.

"Pakistan never has and never will accept strategic imbalances to be induced in South Asia," Kidwai said at the second edition of the Islamabad Non-Proliferation Conference held on Tuesday.

Gen Kidwai and Lt Gen (Retd) Sarfraz Sattar, also an NCA adviser and a former head of the Strategic Plans Division, said India's reported deployment of nuclear weapons aboard a submarine, combined with missile modernisation and recent military confrontations between the two countries, raised serious concerns about regional strategic stability.

Citing the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's (Sipri) Yearbook 2026 and other publicly available information, the two NCA advisers pointed to reports that India had deployed about 12 nuclear warheads on a submarine for deterrence patrols.

They highlighted India's moves toward missile canisterization and broader nuclear and conventional modernisation, arguing that these developments cast doubt on the credibility of its declared No First Use policy.

Gen Kidwai said the submarine deployment suggested India had mated some nuclear warheads with submarine-launched ballistic missiles and conducted sea-based deterrence patrols. "I do not see any reason why a Sipri report might be inaccurate or speculative," he said.

"This irresponsible escalatory transition towards creating asymmetry in nuclear posture will have profound destabilising effects on South Asian strategic stability," Gen Kidwai added.

He argued that India's ability to maintain a continuous at sea deterrent would further undermine the credibility of its declared No First Use policy and indicate a shift toward a more offensive nuclear posture.

"The operational reality that emerges is that India can undertake a first strike against Pakistan at zero notice," Gen Kidwai said. "Strategic balance and strategic stability in South Asia have apparently been dangerously disturbed by India once again."

He also expressed concern over the absence of advance notification for Indian submarine-launched ballistic missile tests.