Lieutenant General Nauman Zakaria, Commander of Pakistan’s I Corps, stated that the military response during the brief May 2025 escalation with India fundamentally challenged existing beliefs about the feasibility of conventional warfare in South Asia. Speaking at a special session of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, he noted that the four-day confrontation demonstrated Islamabad’s readiness to conduct complex multi-domain operations.
He underscored the importance of strategic restraint, effective crisis management, and the responsible use of emerging technologies in maintaining regional stability. The conflict was triggered by an attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, which India quickly attributed to Pakistan. Islamabad denied these claims and called for an independent international investigation. The situation escalated on May 7 when Indian air strikes targeted locations in Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan responded with a measured military counterattack, resulting in cross-border exchanges focused on military targets before a ceasefire was established on May 10. Reflecting on the broader security context, Lt Gen Zakaria highlighted that South Asia’s volatile environment is shaped by nuclear deterrence, significant conventional military imbalances, unresolved political disputes, and longstanding historical tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
In this complex setting, he identified China as a key stabilizing force, contributing to strategic balance, economic cooperation, and regional connectivity. The general emphasized that Pakistan’s operational success in the conflict showcased the effectiveness of integrated multi-dimensional operations, achieved through close coordination among the army, navy, and air force, supported by cyber warfare, electronic warfare, information operations, and advanced Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, including space assets.
Lt Gen Zakaria, the tactical and strategic outcomes of the May 2025 confrontation have further reduced the likelihood of a full-scale conventional war in the region. Nevertheless, he warned that South Asia remains vulnerable to instability due to ongoing military build-ups, hostile political rhetoric, and the lack of formalized crisis-management mechanisms.
Turning to technological developments, the general highlighted the profound impact of rapid advances such as artificial intelligence, autonomous weapons, quantum computing, and cyber capabilities on global security frameworks. He called for the urgent creation of internationally recognized norms to regulate the military use of AI, autonomous systems, space technologies, and cyber warfare, emphasizing that human control must remain central in all decisions involving the use of force.
He urged regional and global stakeholders to update legal and institutional frameworks to keep pace with technological innovation, advocating for enhanced confidence-building measures, technical dialogues, and transparency to prevent destabilizing arms races. Beyond military strength, Lt Gen Zakaria stressed the importance of societal resilience, noting that public trust in government institutions and improved digital literacy are vital to protecting societies from external manipulation, polarization, and misinformation.
