Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was on Monday briefed about the preparedness of the country’s nuclear arsenal and the security situation along the county’s borders at a routine meeting in the national capital that was attended by the three Service chiefs and the national security adviser.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was on Monday briefed about the preparedness of the country’s nuclear arsenal and the security situation along the county’s borders at a routine meeting in the national capital that was attended by the three Service chiefs and the national security adviser. The meeting of the Nuclear Command Authority — chaired by the Prime Minister — took place on Monday against the backdrop of estimates among international defence think tanks that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal has overtaken that of India. The Nuclear Command Authority meets every six months. The meeting also took place against the backdrop of the ongoing Keran encounter near the Line of Control in J&K which has seen the Army battling infiltrating militants from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for the past 14 days. This year has also seen one major transgression by Chinese troops across the Line of Actual Control in the Daulat Beg Oldi area in eastern Ladakh. According to some estimates by global defence think tanks, Pakistan now has between 100 to 120 nuclear warheads while India has between 90 to 110 warheads. Speculation has been rife globally that India is planning to increase the size of its nuclear weapons stockpile in view of the rapid growth of Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile. Speculation is also rife among global defence experts that the size of India’s nuclear arsenal will go up as India intends to test nuclear-capable missiles with multiple warheads. The command and control structures of India’s nuclear arsenal, including the working of the tri-services Strategic Forces Command (SFC) that is tasked with operationalising the nuclear arsenal in any eventuality, are understood to have been discussed at Monday’s meeting.
