Pakistan Army chief proposes Pakistan will take out half the world; India responds

Pakistan army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir's nuclear threat from US soil shows that India’s neighbour country is an "irresponsible" state that can't be trusted with such weapons, government sources said on 11 August, Monday. Opposition voices also condemned the army chief’s statements.

In an address to the Pakistani diaspora in Florida’s Tampa, Munir reportedly made the nuclear threat in case his country faced an existential threat in a future war with India.

"We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we'll take half the world down with us," media reports quoted him as saying.

In his address, Munir said Pakistan had responded "resolutely and forcefully" during the recent conflict with India during Operation Sindoor and that Islamabad made it clear that any Indian aggression will be met with a "befitting reply".

Munir is on an official visit to the US and has engaged in high-level interactions with senior political and military leadership, as well as members of the Pakistani diaspora, the Pakistani army said in a statement.

Randhir Jaiswal, official spokesperson for India’s ministry of external affairs, said India will “continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard our national security”.

“Our attention has been drawn to remarks reportedly made by the Pakistani Chief of Army Staff while on a visit to the United States. Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan’s stock-in-trade. The international community can draw its own conclusions on the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks, which also reinforce the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state where the military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups,” said Jaiswal.

Statement by Official Spokesperson⬇️
🔗 https://t.co/aEi9bMFOHi pic.twitter.com/AGyyGNu8gv

— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) August 11, 2025

He added: “India has already made it clear that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail.” 

While the Narendra Modi-led Government of India still seemed inclined, per the MEA statement, to refer to the US — hosting Munir — as a "friendly third country", Opposition leaders were not as forbearing.

Congress PM Pramod Tiwari reacted, saying, “Pakistan has been exposed. Now the whole world knows what intention Pakistan have. So the world should wake up. Those who do not support India on 'Operation Sindoor' should also wake up.”

"We are confident that we will protect India, but this is a direct threat to Trump and Russia. Is the person who has threatened to destroy half the world worthy of sitting and eating lunch with you? Are you entertaining him? This is a dangerous statement. The United Nations Security Council should take cognisance of this," Tiwari said, speaking to the ANI news agency.

Trump–Munir lunch huge blow to Indian diplomacy: Congress

Other INDIA bloc leaders in India such as John Brittas, the CPI(M) MP, also extended their condemnation beyond Pakistan to the US. Brittas posted on X to say, "It's condemnable that the US has provided a platform for Pakistan’s military leader, Asim Munir, to make provocative and inflammatory statements against India."

It’s condemnable that the US has provided a platform for Pakistan’s military leader, Asim Munir, to make provocative and inflammatory statements against India. pic.twitter.com/p5lsKh54GQ

— John Brittas (@JohnBrittas) August 11, 2025

According to highlights of his speech to the Pakistani community, Munir said Kashmir is "not an internal matter of India but an incomplete international agenda. As the Quaid-e-Azam had said, Kashmir is the 'jugular vein' of Pakistan".

Munir has also claimed in the past that Kashmir was the "jugular vein" of Pakistan — including just weeks before the Pahalgam attack, when he said Pakistan would not forget the issue.

“How can anything foreign be in [Pakistan’s] jugular vein? This is a union territory of India. Its only relationship with Pakistan is the vacation of illegally occupied territories by that country,” India’s ministry of external affairs (MEA) had said at the time.

Munir said his second visit to the US after a gap of one-and-a-half months — the last time when he was hosted at the White House by POTUS Donald Trump — marks a new dimension in Pakistan–US relations. He added that the aim of these visits is to take the relations on a constructive, sustainable and positive path.

Munir also said that Pakistan is extremely grateful to Trump, whose strategic leadership has stopped the war between India and Pakistan as well as prevented many other wars around the world.

New Delhi has been maintaining that India and Pakistan halted their military actions following direct talks between their militaries without any mediation by the US.

During the address, Munir added that a trade agreement with the US is expected to attract huge investments and Pakistan has achieved significant successes on the international relations front.

In June, Munir had travelled to the US on a rare five-day trip during which he attended a private luncheon with President Donald Trump, an unprecedented gesture typically reserved for visiting heads of state or government.

That meeting culminated in Trump's announcement of enhanced US-Pakistan cooperation in various fields, including an oil deal.

The importance of Pak Army chief’s lunch at White House

The Pakistani army said in a statement that in Tampa, Munir attended the retirement ceremony of outgoing commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) General Michael E. Kurilla and the change of command ceremony marking the assumption of command by Admiral Brad Cooper.

Munir also met with the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff General Dan Caine, “where matters of mutual professional interest were discussed. He extended an invitation to General Caine to visit Pakistan. On the sidelines, COAS interacted with Chiefs of Defence from friendly nations”.

"During an interactive session with the Pakistani diaspora, COAS urged them to remain confident in Pakistan’s bright future and to actively contribute to attracting investments. The diaspora reaffirmed their commitment to supporting Pakistan’s progress and development,” the Pakistani army statement said.

The Pakistan army chief's comments are part of a pattern in Pakistan as whenever the US supports the Pakistan military, they always show their true colours of aggression, Indian government sources said in response to the statement.

It is a symptom that democracy does not exist in Pakistan and it is their military which controls the country, they said.

There is a real danger of nuclear weapons falling in the hands of non state actors in Pakistan, the government sources said, per PTI reports, adding his remarks are a symptom that democracy does not exist in that country.

"Emboldened by reception and welcome by the US, the next step could possibly be a silent or open coup in Pakistan so that the field marshal becomes the next president," suggested another source.

Munir's comments are reflective of Pakistan's record of nuclear sabre rattling from time to time while trying to pass itself off as a responsible nuclear actor, the sources said.

The remarks also demonstrated that the real nuclear instability in South Asia comes from a military that has its hand on the nuclear button rather than a civilian authority, they added.

"Will the US hold Pakistan accountable for such irresponsible and provocative comments from its soil, as President Donald Trump has time and again spoken about containing nuclear conflict?" asked the source cited above.

"Before the Pahalgam attack, Munir had given a statement that Hindus and Muslims cannot stay together. This was followed by the Pahalgaam terror attack in which people were asked for their religion and killed at point blank range," said the source.

With PTI inputs