India on Monday described Pakistan army chief Asim Munir’s reported threat to use nuclear weapons in dire circumstances as “stock-in-trade”, saying it reinforced long-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state whose military was in cahoots with terrorists.

“We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us,” media reports based on audience recall had quoted Munir as saying at a Pakistani diaspora meeting in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday.

“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,” the external affairs ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

Munir has stepped up his anti-India rhetoric during what is his second visit in two months to the US, where President Donald Trump had hosted him to a private lunch in the White House in June.

No recording of the Tampa speech was in circulation even by late Monday evening as phones were apparently not allowed, but the Pakistani army had not denied the media reports, either.

According to Reuters, the excerpt quoted Munir as saying: “The (Indian) aggression has brought the region to the brink of a dangerously escalating war, where a bilateral conflict due to any miscalculation will be a grave mistake.”

Pakistan criticised the external affairs ministry, accusing it of “twisting” the remarks made by Munir. “Pakistan strongly rejects the immature remarks made by the Indian ministry of external affairs earlier today...,” the foreign office said while responding to media queries regarding the MEA statement.

The office also accused it of “distorting facts” and “twisting statements out of context.” It stressed that the Indian narrative of an alleged “nuclear blackmail’ is a “misleading and self-serving construct”, as Pakistan remains firmly opposed to the use or threat of use of force.

‘Jugular’, dam threat

A PTI report said Munir had told the diaspora event that Kashmir was the “jugular vein” of Pakistan — repeating the exact words he had said days before the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that triggered a military conflict between India and Pakistan.

He also warned that Islamabad would destroy any dam that India built to cut off the flow of the Indus to Pakistan. India has kept the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance since the Pahalgam massacre.

The external affairs ministry spokesperson said it was regrettable that Munir’s remarks were made from the soil of a friendly third country, iterating India’s stated position that it would not give in to nuclear blackmail.

“We will continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard our national security,” he said.

Since Operation Sindoor and the calls from across the globe to de-escalate as India and Pakistan — both nuclear-armed countries — bombed each other for four days, New Delhi has been maintaining that it would not succumb to nuclear blackmail.

The ministry statement did not comment on Munir’s reported threat to destroy any dam that India might build on the Indus.

Pakistani newspaper Dawn has quoted Munir as saying in Tampa that “We will wait for India to build a dam, and when they do so, we will destroy it.”

He is reported to have added: “The Indus River is not the Indians’ family property. We have no shortage of resources to undo the Indian designs to stop the river.”

PTI quoted Munir as saying that Kashmir was “not an internal matter of India but an incomplete international agenda. As the Quaid-e-Azam (Mohammed Ali Jinnah) had said, Kashmir is the ‘jugular vein’ of Pakistan”.

When Munir had described Kashmir as Pakistan’s “jugular vein” in April, New Delhi had emphasised that the region was a part of India and asked: “How can anything foreign be in a jugular vein?”

PTI quoted Munir as saying that Pakistan was extremely grateful to Trump, whose strategic leadership had stopped the conflict between India and Pakistan and prevented many other wars around the world. Pakistan had in June said it would nominate Trump for the Nobel Prize.

New Delhi maintains that India and Pakistan halted their post-Pahalgam military actions in May following direct talks between their militaries without any US mediation.

Cong slams Munir

The Congress condemned Munir’s remarks, which came five days after the 80th anniversary of the 1945 horror of Hiroshima, and said it was “bizarre that the US establishment is giving such a man such special treatment”.

Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said that Munir had on April 16 made inflammatory and communally poisonous remarks that provided oxygen to the brutal terror attack in Pahalgam six days later.

“On 18th June, 2025, Field Marshal Asim Munir is invited by President Trump for an unprecedented luncheon meeting in the White House,” Ramesh said.

He underlined that Munir was in Tampa for the farewell event for the chief of the US Central Command, Gen. Michael Kurilla, who had earlier praised Pakistan as a “phenomenal partner” in counter-terrorism operations.

“On 10th August, 2025, in a talk to US diaspora Pakistanis, Field Marshal Asim Munir makes the most dangerous, provocative, and totally unacceptable remarks on nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan,” Ramesh said.

The Pakistani army said Munir was on an official visit to the US and had engaged in high-level interactions with senior political and military leaders. It said Munir had attended Kurilla’s retirement ceremony and the change-of-command ceremony marking the assumption of command by Admiral Brad Cooper.

Munir also met the chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, “where matters of mutual professional interest were discussed”.

“On the sidelines, COAS (Munir) interacted with chiefs of defence from friendly nations,” the Pakistan army added.