'Nuclear weapons cannot shield terror': India warns Pakistan at UN, vows zero tolerance for blackmail

Delivering a sharp counter to Islamabad at the United Nations, India declared that nuclear weapons cannot be treated as "routine instruments of statecraft" and asserted that it will never bow to nuclear blackmail.  

Exercising its Right of Reply at the UN General Assembly’s First Committee, India dismantled Pakistan's nuclear posture, cautioning the global community against allowing strategic arsenals to be used as a shield for cross-border terrorism.  

"We heard concerns about escalation. These are legitimate concerns. However, these are best judged by conduct over time. Nuclear weapons must not be treated as routine instruments of statecraft,” said Anmol Sher Singh Bedi, Senior Adviser at the Permanent Mission of India to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.  

Bedi pointed out that relying on a nuclear overhang to blunt the consequences of subconventional warfare only elevates risk rather than promoting restraint.  

“A posture that relies on nuclear overhang to limit the consequences of subconventional activity raises the risk of escalation and not the prospect of restraint,” Bedi said. “Where those in power are neither elected by people nor accountable to them, their decisions carry no risk and impose no cost for those who take them. That is how crisis becomes an instrument of power. That is how instability becomes useful, and that is how the cycle keeps on repeating”.  

Setting out India's national security stance, the diplomat outlined three unyielding boundaries:  

• Response to Terror: Any terrorist attack launched against India will receive a fitting response.  
• No Blackmail: India will not bow to nuclear blackmail under any circumstances.  
• No Distinction: India will make no distinction between those who sponsor terrorism and those who mastermind it.  

Rejecting attempts by state sponsors to hide behind proxy outfits, India reiterated that the use of non-state actors does not absolve a nation of state responsibility.  

“The use of force by states under the garb of non-state actors does not erase the state's responsibility. India's right of self-defense remains intact,” Bedi said, reinforcing that India's military capabilities remain defensive in nature and shaped strictly by its security environment.  

Reaffirming that Jammu and Kashmir remains an integral and inalienable part of India, New Delhi called on global arms suppliers to exercise strict vigilance regarding advanced weapons transfers to destabilising regimes. “We urge all states and all responsible suppliers to exercise the highest degree of vigilance, not because of India, but for their own security,” Bedi said.