India has warned Pakistan that nuclear threats will not deter its response to terrorism. Speaking at the UN, Anmol Sher Bedi defended Operation Sindoor, criticised Pakistan’s alleged use of terrorism to trigger crises and raised concerns over nuclear proliferation.
Published Date – 10 October 2026, 08:54 AM
United Nations: India has warned Pakistan that it will not be deterred by Islamabad’s use of nuclear threats to evade the consequences of terrorism and will respond to terror attacks.
“India will not bow to nuclear blackmail,” Anmol Sher Bedi, senior adviser at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, said on Friday.
He warned Pakistan that “any terrorist attack against India will receive a fitting response” and that India would “make no distinction between those who sponsor terrorism and those who mastermind it”.
Operation Sindoor, launched last year against terrorist bases in Pakistan, “followed a grave provocation” in the form of the Pahalgam terror attack by Pakistan-based terrorists, who killed 26 civilians, he said.
“India acted in self-defence,” he said, adding that “these actions were measured, targeted, and designed to be non-escalatory”.
“Nuclear weapons must not be treated as routine instruments of statecraft” and “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,” he said at a meeting of the UN General Assembly’s First Committee, which deals with disarmament issues, in New York.
He was responding to Tahir Andrabi, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, who spoke at the meeting.
Bedi assured the committee that India’s nuclear capabilities were not directed at any country and stressed that they “are defensive in nature”.
“They are shaped by our own security environment,” he said.
India, unlike Pakistan, has declared a no-first-use policy, meaning it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons against any country.
Bedi, who responded strongly to Pakistan, is from Amritsar and secured second rank in the 2016 public service examination. He holds a computer science degree from BITS Pilani and has studied Mandarin in China.
He questioned Pakistan’s calls for nuclear cooperation, citing the nuclear proliferation network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, who headed Pakistan’s nuclear programme. The network provided nuclear weapons know-how to other countries and traded nuclear material for missile technology with North Korea, he said.
Bedi warned countries to safeguard their interests when cooperating with Islamabad on nuclear and military technology.
“On proliferation, India refers to the history of the AQ Khan network, which contributed to the Security Council Resolution 1540 almost two decades back,” he said.
“This is relevant in the context of demands for unquestioned nuclear cooperation and transfer of advanced weapons and military capabilities,” he said.
“We urge all states and all responsible suppliers to exercise the highest degree of vigilance, not because of India, but for their own security,” he said.
Security Council Resolution 1540, adopted in 2004, is a binding measure prohibiting countries from transferring weapons of mass destruction to terrorists, referred to in the resolution as non-state actors, or enabling them to obtain such weapons. It also established the 1540 Committee to monitor compliance.
Bedi said Pakistan’s use of repeated crises fuelled by terrorism destabilised the region.
“In India’s experience, crises in the region have tended to follow a recurring pattern: first, provocation; second, denial of responsibility; and third, appeals for restraint once a response has been made,” he said.
“That is how instability becomes useful, and that is how the cycle keeps on repeating,” he said.
Bedi said this was enabled by Pakistan’s system of governance, in which the military wielded real power.
“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,” he said. “That is how crisis becomes an instrument of power.”
The role of the military leadership in Pakistan was highlighted during UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ recent visit to the country, when he met military chief Asim Munir, an unusual step as formal talks with military leaders are not part of his usual itinerary.
Bedi said India had put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance because it was signed on the understanding that both sides would maintain trust and cooperation, which Pakistan had undermined.
Responding to Andrabi’s reference to Kashmir, Bedi said Pakistan raised the issue regardless of the topic under discussion.
“Jammu and Kashmir is an integral and inalienable part of India. We call for India’s illegally occupied territories to be vacated and returned back,” he said.
