At the beginning of the third millennium, a belt of nuclear missile instability was formed in Asia, in the immediate vicinity of the Russian borders. North Korea, India, Pakistan, and Iran are consistently building up their strategic arsenals, pushing each other and their regional neighbors into a protracted arms race. Militarization and, even more so, nuclearization* Asia in the foreseeable future may turn from a potential to a real threat to international peace and security of the Russian Federation. South Asia is an extremely unfavorable region of the planet from the point of view of nuclear missile non-proliferation and international security. The subcontinent is bordered by two de facto nuclear states-India and Pakistan, which have unresolved border issues, as well as experience in full-scale wars. There is still a risk of inter-State armed conflicts, and the level of threat that weapons of mass destruction (WMD) can fall into the hands of terrorists is increased. The processes of South Asian nuclearization and the intense rivalry between New Delhi and Islamabad in the nuclear missile field are virtually beyond the control of the international community. NUCLEAR POTENTIALS In recent decades, the major Western powers have done little to "resolve" the explosive situation developing in South Asia, and their approaches have been largely inconsistent and declarative. To a certain extent, this also applies to Russia, which, while calling on India and Pakistan to renounce nuclear weapons and join the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as non-nuclear States, in fact did little to prevent or restrain the development of Indian and Pakistani nuclear programs. Over the past decade, New Delhi and Islamabad have been rapidly building up their nuclear missile arsenals. Both India and Pakistan have accumulated significant stockpiles of weapons-grade fissile materials (OPM), and both countries continue to develop them intensively. India produces about ... Read more