Explainer | Explained: how India and Pakistan became nuclear states

India and Pakistan are among the world’s nine nuclear weapons states, alongside China, France, Israel, North Korea, Russia, the United Kingdom and the US

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Indian soldiers patrol the border with Pakistan. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:01am, 7 Mar 2019Updated: 12:21pm, 7 Mar 2019

India and Pakistan announced their arrivals as nuclear powers with a flurry of weapons testing in 1998. The two countries have since refrained from testing their nukes but have nevertheless been generally accepted as de facto nuclear states and continued to invest heavily in their respective nuclear capacities.

Neither is party to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the arms control agreement signed by 189 other nations. In exchange for access to peaceful uses of nuclear energy, such as power generation, the NPT requires states to abandon any present or future plans to build nuclear weapons.

India and Pakistan have refused to sign the agreement, claiming it discriminates by dividing the world into nuclear “haves and have-nots” and legitimising the possession of nuclear arsenals by the “big five” – China, France, Russia, the UK and the US – while prohibiting other states from acquiring them.

This stance, set against the backdrop of unresolved tensions and border disputes between the two countries, keeps the world in a state of high alert to any potential escalation. The exchange of air strikes in divided Kashmir in February highlighted the simmering hostility.

India and Pakistan have fairly comparable arsenals but the danger of non-state actors gaining control of nuclear weapons is more acute in Pakistan, where militant groups have in the past attacked military facilities.

North Korea has cited India and Pakistan as model nuclear nations, which have not been isolated from the international community despite possessing nuclear weapons. Sung-Yoon Lee, professor of Korea Studies at The Fletcher School, said they gained this acceptance by de-escalating following their initial burst of nuclear tests.