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NEW DELHI: Pakistan continues to be slightly ahead of India in terms of the number of nuclear warheads, with China having more than double the quantity, but the Indian defence establishment remains confident of its nuclear deterrence capability.
The latest assessment of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which was released on Monday, says China now has 320 nuclear warheads with Pakistan having 160 as compared to 150 of India.
The SIPRI report comes at a time when India is grappling with an over 40-day major troop confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh, while the two armies have also undertaken military build-ups all along the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control. The 778-km Line of Control, in turn, remains extremely volatile with daily exchanges of heavy shelling between India and Pakistan.
The US and Russia are in a different league altogether with 5,800 and 6,375 nuclear warheads respectively, t