Pakistan modernising nuclear arsenal; views India as 'existential threat', says US intelligence
In its Worldwide Threat Assessment report for 2025, the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) stated that Pakistan regards India as an 'existential threat,' while India considers China its 'primary adversary' and views Pakistan more as an 'ancillary security problem' to be managed.
The report highlights Pakistan's continued military modernisation, including the development of battlefield nuclear weapons aimed at offsetting India's conventional military advantage. Pakistan is also upgrading its nuclear arsenal and maintaining strict security over its nuclear materials and command systems. The report says that Pakistan, almost certainly is acquiring weapons of mass destruction (WMD)-applicable goods from foreign suppliers and intermediaries.
The report states that China remains Pakistan's main economic and military partner. The two countries conduct multiple joint military exercises every year, including a new air exercise completed in November 2024. Materials and technology supporting Pakistan's WMD programs are very likely sourced primarily from China, sometimes transshipped through Hong Kong, Singapore, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. However, the report says that terrorist attacks targeting Chinese workers involved in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects have caused friction, with seven Chinese nationals killed in Pakistan in 2024.
The report outlines Pakistan military's key priorities as managing cross-border skirmishes with regional neighbours, responding to rising attacks by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and Baloch nationalist militants, conducting counterterrorism operations, and continuing nuclear modernisation. Despite ongoing operations, militants killed more than 2,500 people across Pakistan in 2024.
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To handle this, India needs to: • Upgrade its hybrid warfare posture. • Use AI and ISR to pre-empt digital disinformation and psychological warfare. • Highlight the economic cost of Pakistan's militarism for regional development and stability. The Real Threat: Global Complicity The true danger lies not just in Pakistan's duplicity—but in the international system's hypocrisy. In pursuit of short-term geopolitical stability, donors, banks, and even media houses turn a blind eye to a militarised regime laundering blood money. India must change that. It must make the cost of enabling Pakistan's military economy too high for the global system to ignore. Conclusion: India's Moral and Strategic Imperative The world must recognise the Pakistan Army not as a national institution, but as a transnational criminal syndicate in uniform—one that launders money, funds terror, and destabilises entire regions under the cover of diplomacy and development. India now has a generational opportunity—to shift the global discourse, expose the financial foundations of terrorism, and dismantle the architecture of state-enabled jihad. This is no longer about India versus Pakistan. It is about the future of a rules-based global order. It is time to act—not with dossiers, but with disruption. Not with lament, but with lawfare. Not just with truth, but with the tools to enforce it. top videos View all Because no terrorist grows without money. And no terror economy thrives without international indulgence. That indulgence must end—with India lighting the fire. The author is former Director General, Mechanised Forces. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views. tags : Jaish-e-Mohammed Lashkar-e-Taiba pakistan Taliban terrorism UN Security Council Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: June 05, 2025, 14:50 IST News opinion Opinion | Terrorist State Pakistan At The Helm Of Global Counter-Terrorism?
