New Delhi: India and Pakistan have decided to stop firing and military action on land and in the air from 5 pm today (May 10, 2025), Foreign Secretary Vikrim Misri said on Saturday. This comes as a relief to the world as this escalating conflict between two of the world’s major military powers had the potential to destablise Asia and beyond. And there were reasons to be tense, considering the fact that both the countries are nuclear powers.
While neither country has used nuclear weapons in a conflict, it wasn’t definite that the norm would never be broken. While India holds 180 nuclear warheads, Pakistan possesses 170.
Though India has a “no first use” policy, meaning that the country would never use nuclear weapons first, Pakistan had never declared a similar policy. In fact, it had argued in the past that tactical nuclear weapons are important to countering India’s larger conventional forces.
Here’s a look at the nuclear policy of India and some interesting facts:
New Delhi’s nuclear doctrine and S Jaishankar link: New Delhi’s first and only nuclear doctrine was published in 2003. It had not been formally revised till date. It was drafted by the late strategic analyst K Subrahmanyam, who is the father of India’s current foreign minister, S Jaishankar.
- Who can authorise a nuclear strike in India? Only the prime minister, as head of the political council of the Nuclear Command Authority, can authorise a nuclear strike.
- 4 principles of India’s nuclear doctrine/policy are as follows:
- No First Use (NFU): It means that India will not be the first to launch nuclear attacks on its rivals. It will only retaliate with nuclear weapons if first hit. India also commits to not using nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states.
- Credible Minimum Deterrence: It maintains that India’s nuclear arsenal is meant primarily to discourage other countries from launching a nuclear attack on it.
- Massive Retaliation: India’s retaliation to a first-strike from an aggressor/rival will be calculated to inflict such damage that the rival’s military capabilities will be annihilated.
- Exceptions for biological or chemical weapons: India will use nuclear weapons against any state that targets the country or its military forces abroad with biological or chemical weapons.
Has there been any change in India’s nuclear policy?
Although there has been no formal change in the official doctrine so far, Indian politicians have in recent years implied that a more ambiguous posture regarding the No First Use policy might be in the works. In 2016, India’s then-Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had questioned if India needed to continue following the NFU. In 2019, the present Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that changing situations could affect India’s stance.