LONDON: Don’t take Pakistan Nuclear capabilities lightly, former topGeneral warns India at the international forum.
Former senior general of the Pakistan Army on Friday warned India againsttaking the nuclear capabilities of Pakistan lightly, saying Pakistanreserves the right to exercise all options to protect its territorial andideological interests in case of a war-like situation.
The remarks, made by the former director-general of the Strategic PlansDivision, retired Lt Gen Khalid Kidwai, were made while he gave a keynoteaddress at a workshop held by the International Institute of StrategicStudies (IISS) in London.
The workshop, titled *South Asian Strategic Stability: Deterrence, NuclearWeapons and Arms Control*, was attended by retired Lt Gen Amir Riaz,defence expert Hassan Askari, retired Brig Nadeem Ahmed Salik and formerambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi, among others.
The opening remarks of the workshop were available for public viewing, butthe remaining conference was held behind closed doors for a select group ofpeople. The discussions held during the day-long conference on nucleardeterrence in South Asia remain off the record.
“Pakistan must shoulder the responsibility of maintaining the vitalstrategic balance in the conventional and nuclear equation with India asthe particular determinant of the state of strategic stability in SouthAsia,” retired general Kidwai said in his opening remarks.
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In his keynote, the former general spoke in great depth about the strategicpositions of both India and Pakistan in the event of further escalationbetween the two hostile neighbours.
“If Pakistan were to allow imbalances to be introduced in this strategicequation, South Asia would list more serious strategic instability.
This, in turn, would lead to catastrophic consequences in view of India’shistorically persistent and insatiable drive for regional domination,especially given India’s current irrational, unstable and belligerentinternal and external policies,” he said.