On January 1, India and Pakistan exchanged lists of their nuclear installations, a practice maintained for over three decades under a bilateral agreement prohibiting attacks on such facilities.
The agreement was signed in 1988 and ratified in 1991. This marks the 34th consecutive exchange of such lists, with the first occurring on January 1, 1992. “India and Pakistan today exchanged, through diplomatic channels simultaneously in New Delhi and Islamabad, the list of nuclear installations and facilities covered under the agreement on the prohibition of attacks against nuclear installations and facilities between India and Pakistan,” the Indian Foreign Ministry said.
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The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimates that India and Pakistan possessed 172 and 170 nuclear warheads, respectively, in 2024. “India, Pakistan, and North Korea are all pursuing the capability to deploy multiple warheads on ballistic missiles, something Russia, France, the UK, the USA, and – more recently – China already have,” SIPRI noted in its June report.
According to the Centre for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation (ACA), Pakistan currently has six nuclear-capable land-based ballistic missile systems, encompassing both short-range (<1000 km) and medium-range (1000-3000 km) systems, and has three medium-range ballistic missiles under development. One of these, the Ababeel, can reportedly carry multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs). “Some of Pakistan’s short-range ballistic missiles, particularly the new Nasr (Hatf-9), have a range too short to attack targets within India, leading some analysts to argue that the Nasr is intended for battlefield use against invading Indian troops,” the ACA noted in its August 2023 report.
Reports indicate that Islamabad’s land-based nuclear forces employ road-mobile delivery systems that have undergone significant expansion in recent years, including the testing and introduction of new solid-fuel rockets. Pakistan is actively developing its nuclear arsenal, and experts project that it may possess the fifth-largest arsenal by 2025, with around 200 warheads.
Ties between the two South Asian neighbors have been tense since their independence from Britain in 1947. The Kashmir region, divided between the two countries, has been a point of contention, with both nations claiming the territory as their own. New Delhi has repeatedly accused Islamabad of supporting cross-border terrorism and militancy in the Muslim-majority area, while Islamabad has accused India of violating the humanitarian rights of the region’s residents.
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Diplomatic and economic ties between the two nations have further deteriorated since 2019, following the Pulwama attack in Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops. In response, New Delhi conducted a “surgical strike” against the terrorist group responsible in the Pakistani town of Balakot. Later that year, Islamabad downgraded its relations after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked special constitutional privileges for Kashmir.