Soon, Pakistan could have more nuclear weapons than every country except America and Russia

(Image credit: Pakistan Ministry of Defense via Getty Images)

published 27 August 2015

At the rate Pakistan is building nuclear weapons, it could have the world's third-largest nuclear stockpile within five to 10 years, a new report by two American think tanks projects. The study by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Stimson Center suggests that Pakistan, driven by a fear of India, its nuclear-armed nemesis next door, may be building 20 nuclear warheads a year, which could result in the country possessing a total of at least 350 nuclear weapons within a decade. Right now, analysts estimate Pakistan has about 120 nuclear warheads.

Some, such as Mansoor Ahmed, a nuclear expert at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, think the new report is "overblown." Still, if its predictions are proven true, Pakistan will soon have the third-biggest nuclear arsenal on Earth — though still well behind Russia's 7,500 and America's 7,100. That means Pakistan would have more nukes than France, China, the U.K., India, Israel, and North Korea. Today, Pakistan is believed to have the world's sixth-largest stockpile.

"What the world must understand," Ahmed told The Washington Post, "is that nuclear weapons are part of Pakistan's belief system."