India Criticises Nuclear Threats Made by Pak Army Chief Asim Munir on US Visit

New Delhi: India on Monday (August 11) hit out at comments reportedly made by Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir in the United States, branding them “nuclear sabre-rattling” and noting it was “regrettable” that they came from the “friendly” territory of the United States.

According to The Print, Munir told a black-tie dinner of Pakistani diaspora members in Tampa, Florida: “We are a nuclear nation, if we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us.” He also warned that if India built a dam on the Indus River, Pakistan would destroy it “with ten missiles,” adding, “we have no shortage of missiles.” The Print said it reconstructed the speech from accounts of several attendees.

Responding to the remarks, the Ministry of External Affairs has said such “nuclear sabre-rattling” was “Pakistan’s stock-in-trade.” It added that the comments deepened “well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state where the military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups,” urging the international community to “draw its own conclusions on the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks.”

The MEA further said it was “regrettable that these remarks should have been made from the soil of a friendly third country.”

“India has already made it clear that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail. We will continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard our national security,” it added.

Munir’s speech came during his second visit to the United States in less than two months, which the Pakistan army chief claimed would add a “new dimension” in Pakistan-US relations.

During the trip, he attended the US Central Command’s change-of-command ceremony for Admiral Brad Cooper and a separate retirement ceremony for outgoing Centcom chief General Michael E. Kurilla.

The second visit is another sign of the flowering of ties between Islamabad and the Trump administration, which began to improve after Pakistan army extradited an Islamic State militant in January. When Trump won the presidency, there had initially been concern in Islamabad that his administration might exert pressure to release jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had actively courted Trump during thr latter's first term, was among the first foreign leaders to visit Washington after Trump took office in February. 

But the aftermath of the four-day clash between India and Pakistan in May saw Washington and Islamabad draw closer, symbolised by an unprecedented lunch between Munir and Trump, the first meeting of its kind between a serving Pakistan army chief and a US president.

Kurilla’s praise for Pakistan as a “phenomenal partner” in counter-terrorism that same month further irked New Delhi, which has long labelled its neighbour the “global epicentre” of terrorism. India was also unsettled by repeated claims from Trump that he had personally intervened to end the May clashes, an assertion New Delhi has disputed.

Adding to tensions, India, still in the midst of trade deal negotiations, was hit with one of the steepest tariff hikes after Washington imposed a 25 per cent penalty for its purchase of Russian oil, effectively doubling tariffs on Indian goods.

A report by the Financial Times on Monday said that “India and Pakistan’s contrasting diplomatic fortunes have the potential to upend geopolitics in volatile south Asia and are already feeding into trade, where the US gave Islamabad a relatively light 19 per cent tariff while hitting New Delhi with a punitive 50 per cent”.

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