Pakistan is believed to be making efforts to ‘modernize its military arsenal’ amid escalating tensions with India. Ties between the two countries have been strained in recent weeks following a deadly terrorist attack in Kashmir and Indian retaliation in the form of Operation Sindoor. An US intelligence report released on Sunday indicated that Pakistan would “continue to pursue its military modernization efforts” in order to ofset the conventional military advantage enjoyed by India.
“Pakistan is modernising its nuclear arsenal and maintaining the security of its nuclear materials and nuclear command and control. Pakistan almost certainly procures WMD applicable goods from foreign suppliers and intermediaries,” the US Defence Intelligence Agency wrote in its latest report.
It also predicted that the Pakistani military would have “cross-border skirmishes with regional neighbors” and nuclear modernisation as some of its top priorities over the next year.
The World Threat Assessment report released by US authorities on Sunday also highlighted growing ties between Pakistan and China in recent years. The country is a recipent of Beijing’s “economic and military largesse” and conducts multiple exercies every year with the People’s Liberation Army. The US intelligence report however noted that terrorist attacks targetting Chinese workers involved in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects has emerged as a point of friction.
“Foreign materials and technology supporting Pakistan’s WMD programs are very likely acquired primarily from suppliers in China, and sometimes are transshipped through Hong Kong, Singapore, Turkey, and the United Arab
Emirates,” it added.