'No Nuclear Threat During Operation Sindoor': Nuclear Watchdog Chief To NDTV

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, in an exclusive interview with NDTV, contradicted US President Donald Trump, who claimed a few months back that nations, including Pakistan, had resumed nuclear testing in deep sites underground. 

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Grossi referred to Trump's remarks as "political views". 

"There is no record of inspections. I don't know. I think in general, political statements do happen, sometimes in response to other statements. So we do not, of course, base our activity on the basis of that. There hasn't been any nuclear test proper. What we have seen is testing and operation of means of delivery, which is a different thing from nuclear weapons, as you know," Grossi told NDTV. 

Back in November,  Trump said that Pakistan was among the countries that have been actively testing nuclear weapons. He also named iran, China, Russia and North Korea as nations that are secretly testing their nuclear arsenal.

"There is something which is called the International Monitoring System, which is administered by a sister organisation, the Organisation for the Comprehensive Test and Treaty, located in Vienna. And there hasn't been any record of nuclear explosions in this regard. But as I said, these things are part of political statements and also a reflection of the existing geopolitical tensions in our world," Grossi said. 

Grossi added that there was no indication of any involvement of nuclear weapons during the India-Pakistan conflict in 2025. 

When asked if the safety of Pakistan's nuclear weapons was assured and if any movement was detected, Grossi said: "There was no indication of any involvement of nuclear weapons in this conflict, which was, of course, of a conventional nature."

Operation Sindoor, the expansive cross-border strikes conducted by India, was in retaliation for the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22, which claimed 26 lives. India responded with Operation Sindoor, targeting nine terror-related sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The Indian response resulted in the deaths of over 100 terrorists associated with groups including Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Hizbul Mujahideen.

When asked if India's strikes on Pakistan, particularly in areas that reportedly house its nuclear arsenal, raised any alarms at the IAEA, Grossi said: "The activity of the IAEA is conducted in accordance with international treaties that countries accede to. We are not sort of a global universal nuclear police. So, as you know, Pakistan or India have chosen not to join the NPT for other reasons that are of a more political or other nature."

"The IAEA does inspections, carries out inspections of nuclear facilities across the nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear reactors all over the world, laboratories, and so on and so forth. When it comes to nuclear testing, there is another, as I said, organisation, the CTBTO in Vienna, that does specifically this work for a treaty, which is the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which is not in force yet, but it is considered a global reference for the existence or otherwise of nuclear testing," Grossi added. 

The IAEA chief said that self-restraint by many countries in terms of nuclear testing should continue.