Unknown By Many, Nuclear War Almost Happened In 2019

Photo by Dasha Urvachova on Unsplash

JAKARTA - Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a shocking confession. It turns out that the world was very close to facing nuclear war.

In his latest memoir, Pompeo explained that India and Pakistan were close to launching nukes at each other in February 2019.

This came after Delhi launched an attack on militants in Pakistani territory. That too in response to an attack on Indian troops in Kashmir.

Pakistan later admitted shooting down two Indian military jets and capturing a fighter pilot.

India has long accused Pakistan of supporting separatist militants in the Kashmir valley - a charge Islamabad denies. The nuclear-armed neighbors have fought three wars since independence from Britain and partition in 1947.

In the book, Never Give An Inch: Fighting for the America I Love, Pompeo said he wasn't sure if the world knew how close the India-Pakistan rivalry had gotten when it spiraled into nuclear war in February 2019.

"Actually, I don't know the exact answer either; I just know the answer is too close," he wrote as quoted by the BBC, Wednesday 25 January.

At that time, Pompeo was in Hanoi and said he would never forget that night. While negotiating with North Korea over nuclear weapons, "India and Pakistan began threatening each other over the decades-long dispute over the northern border region of Kashmir".

Pompeo said he was awakened in Hanoi to speak to an Indian "colleague", who was not named.

“He believes the Pakistani people have started preparing their nuclear weapons for an attack. India, he told me, is considering an escalation of its own,” Pompeo wrote.

"I asked him to do nothing and give us a minute to sort things out."

Pompeo said he immediately had discussions with then-National Security Adviser John Bolton who was with him in a small secure communications facility.

Pompeo contacted Pakistan's then military chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, "and told him what the Indians told me," he continued.

"He said it was not true. As expected, he believed the Indians were preparing their nuclear weapons for deployment. It took us several hours - and the excellent work of our team on the ground in New Delhi and Islamabad - to convince each side that the other side is not preparing for nuclear war.

"No other country would have done what we did that night to avoid a terrible outcome," Pompeo wrote.