Pakistan is on course of having about 350 nuclear weapons in about a decade, the world’s third-largest stockpile after the US and Russia and twice that of India, two major American think-tanks said on Thursday.
“In the next five to 10 years Pakistan could have a nuclear arsenal not only twice the size of India’s but also larger than those of the UK, China, and France, giving it the third-largest arsenal behind the US and Russia,” said a report by two scholars Tom Dalton and Michael Krepon.
The 48-page report titled ‘A Normal Nuclear Pakistan’ by the Stimson Center and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says that the growth path of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, enabled by existing infrastructure goes well beyond the assurances of credible minimal deterrence provided by Pakistani officials. “If Pak continues on its current path, and if there is no reassessment of its presumed need to compete effectively with India, in 10 years Pakistan could possess a nuclear arsenal nearing 350 weapons (or at least a stockpile of fissile material sufficient for an arsenal of this size),” report said.