With North Korea and Iran hogging all the nuclear headlines recently, the launch of India’s nuclear submarine and the subsequent rantings from Pakistan have gone by largely unnoticed. While it is critically important to deal with the Iranian and North Korean situations, it would be unwise to forget that there are two neighboring nuclear powers in South Asia who aren’t exactly fond of each other. Following the launch, Pakistan’s foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit said that
Pakistan will take appropriate steps to safeguard its security without entering an arms race. The continued induction of new lethal weapon systems by India is detrimental to regional peace and stability.
Indeed, the specter of an arms race between India and Pakistan is far from inconceivable and still raises fears of the potential for a Cold War between the two hostile nations. As pointed out in an article published by Dawn though, Pakistan is simply incapable of engaging in an arms race with India as it lacks both the monetary resources and the technical/scientific expertise required. The author eventually concludes that
In any case, having acquired an indigenous nuclear-sub-building technology India has not really acted wisely, for this has been at the cost of millions of dispossessed and hungry. Why would we want to take that route?
Ignoring the fact that this is far more likely a statement solely made to help ease the pain rather than a genuine proclamation on the welfare of Indian citizens, rest assured that this is probably not a perspective shared by Pakistan’s leaders. Perpetually at a military disadvantage to its neighbor, even excluding nuclear weapons and submarines, much of Pakistan’s history is colored by a desire to at least attempt to maintain strategic parity with India - hence its 1998 nuclear test almost immediately after India’s - a goal that has been undermined here once again.
Although any conclusion made at this point is pure speculation, it seems unlikely that Pakistan will let this go lightly, despite the recent tone-down in rhetoric. The global nonproliferation regime, embodied in the NPT and successful for so long, remains incredibly fragile but serves as more evidence of the need to deal with nuclear problems globally as opposed to pursuing a strategy of containment and damage-control for each outbreak.