India on Monday said that it will not give in to “nuclear blackmail” after Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir reportedly suggested that his country could use nuclear weapons if faced with an existential threat from New Delhi.
During a visit to the United States, Munir told members of the Pakistani-American community in Tampa, Florida, “We are a nuclear nation, if we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us,” The Print reported.
He also said that Islamabad would defend its water rights “at all costs” if India proceeded with constructing a dam on the Indus River.
On April 23, a day after the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 persons were killed, India suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty on water sharing, citing Islamabad’s support for “sustained cross-border terrorism”.
At the Tampa event, Munir reportedly said, “We will wait for India to build a dam and when they do so, we will destroy it.”
Responding to Munir’s comments, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India would “continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard our national security”.
The foreign ministry added: “Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan’s stock-in-trade.”
The ministry of external affairs said that the international community can “draw its own conclusions” on the irresponsible nature of such remarks.
“[The remarks] reinforce the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state where the military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups,” it said.
The external affairs minister also said it was “regrettable” that the remarks were made from “the soil of a friendly third country”.
Pakistan army chief’s US visit
Munir is on an official visit to the United States where he has held high-level meetings with senior political and military leaders as well as members of the Pakistani diaspora, The Indian Express quoted the Pakistani Army as saying.
During his visit, Munir reportedly expressed gratitude to US President Donald Trump for purportedly helping end the four-day conflict between India and Pakistan.
Tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The strikes were in response to the terror attack in Pahalgam.
On May 10, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced the decision to stop military action minutes after Trump claimed on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to the ceasefire.
Since then, Trump has repeatedly claimed that he helped India and Pakistan settle the four-day conflict. The US president has also claimed that he pressured both countries into accepting the ceasefire by threatening to stop trade with them.
India has, however, maintained that the United States was not involved in talks between New Delhi and Islamabad to stop military hostilities.
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