‘We Respect India’s Military Capabilities’: Pak Lt Gen Says No Arms Race

Pakistan is not seeking an arms race with India despite New Delhi’s development of missile, air-defence and conventional strike capabilities, Pakistan’s Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in an interview with Al Arabiya English.

“We’re not looking for an arms race against the Indians,” Chaudhry said when asked about developments in India’s missile, air-defence and conventional strike capabilities.

He said Pakistan respected India’s military capabilities and understood New Delhi’s decision to devote substantial resources to expanding its military arsenal. “However, that doesn’t mean that we are into any sort of arms race with the Indians,” he said.

Chaudhry described Pakistan’s own capabilities as defensive and said Islamabad had “no aggressive design on any country in the world”.

“We are fully confident of our defensive capabilities, first to defend and to inflict punishment,” he added.

India’s Missile And Air-Defence Development

Chaudhry’s comments come as India continues to test and develop new missile and air-defence systems.

In May, India conducted a successful flight test of an Advanced Agni missile equipped with a Multiple Independently Targeted Re-entry Vehicle system. The Defence Ministry said the test demonstrated the ability to target multiple geographically separated targets with a single missile.

India also conducted the maiden flight test of the Kusha long-range surface-to-air missile in July. The Defence Ministry said the system is designed to counter aerial threats including fighter aircraft, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Other 2026 developments have included VSHORADS interceptor trials, new radar acquisitions and a large July package of defence procurement proposals covering systems including MRSAM, V-SHORADS and anti-drone capabilities.

The Defence Ministry has also approved the transfer of technologies for conventional DRDO-developed missile systems to Indian industry as part of efforts to expand domestic production.

Pakistan’s Concerns Over Afghanistan

Chaudhry also addressed Pakistan’s increasingly tense relationship with Afghanistan, saying Islamabad’s objective was to prevent interference and terrorism originating from across the border.

He said the military did not have a separate objective from Pakistan’s political leadership, but shared the broader national aim of preventing terrorism from Afghanistan.

Chaudhry accused the Afghan Taliban government of allowing militant groups to recruit, train, arm and launch attacks from Afghan territory into Pakistan.

He cited groups including Al-Qaeda, Islamic State-Khorasan Province, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, and said recent United Nations reports supported Pakistan’s concerns.

Those claims were made by Chaudhry during the interview and were not independently established in the exchange.

He said Pakistan did not want Afghanistan to become what he described as the “terrorist central of the world”.