Kidwai Warns India Pakistan Will Never Accept Strategic Imbalance, Could Review Deployment Options

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will not let India tilt the strategic balance in South Asia, and it could review its deployment options to restore that balance if New Delhi keeps pushing. That was the blunt message from retired Lt Gen Khalid Kidwai, adviser to the National Command Authority, at the second Islamabad Non-Proliferation Conference on Tuesday, hosted by the Strategic Vision Institute. Pakistan never has and never will accept strategic imbalances being induced in the region, he said, adding that any review would be carried out while retaining the policy of strategic ambiguity.

The submarine deployment at the heart of the warning

Citing SIPRI’s Yearbook 2026 and other publicly available information, Mr Kidwai said reports suggested India had deployed around 12 nuclear warheads aboard a submarine and begun sea-based deterrence patrols, mating warheads with submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Missile canisterisation and wider nuclear and conventional modernisation, he argued, cast doubt on India’s declared No-First-Use policy, especially with no advance notification of its submarine-launched missile tests. He called it an irresponsible, escalatory transition, and said the operational reality emerging was that India could attempt a first strike at zero notice.

‘Read and re-read Full Spectrum Deterrence’

Mr Kidwai urged India to read and re-read Pakistan’s policy of Full Spectrum Deterrence and absorb its wide-ranging implications for deterrence and stability. Pakistan, he said, reserves the right to take all appropriate measures to safeguard its national security and preserve the strategic balance in the region under all circumstances.

Sattar: a perilous course

Fellow former NCA adviser retired Lt Gen Sarfraz Sattar reminded the conference that the May 2025 conflict had shown how quickly conventional fighting between the two nuclear-armed neighbours could escalate, with cruise and ballistic missiles, drones and cyber warfare all in play. Canisterised missiles, MIRV capability, missile defences and hypersonic weapons had raised the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculation, he warned, placing the future of strategic stability in South Asia on a perilous and worrisome course, with the danger of unintended escalation to the nuclear level.