How did India react to Asim Munir's 'jugular vein', 'nuclear nation' comments made in the US?

India on Monday criticised Pakistani Army chief Asim Munir's nuclear threats against New Delhi, calling it "nuclear sabre-rattling" that was essentially Pakistan's "stock-in-trade".

"India has already made it clear that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail. We will continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard our national security," a statement from India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) read.

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"It is also regrettable that these remarks should have been made from the soil of a friendly third country," the statement added.

In his second visit to the United States, the army chief had made incendiary statements threatening to destroy any dam India would build in the Indus river.

“We will wait for India to build a dam, and when they do so, we will destroy it ... The Indus River is not the Indians’ family property. We have no shortage of resources to undo the Indian designs to stop the river," he told Pakistani expatriates at Tampa, Florida.

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His comments were a reference to India's decision to put the Indus Water Treaty—an India-Pakistan water-sharing agreement—in abeyance after the devastating Pahalgam attack of April 22. Despite Pakistan’s constant protests, India has so far refused to reverse its decision to suspend the treaty.

He also reiterated his earlier inflammatory remark about Kashmir being Pakistan’s “jugular vein", asserting that it was not India’s internal matter but “an unresolved international issue".

During this time, he again echoed US President Donald Trump's claims of Washington playing a key role in stopping the India-Pakistan conflict in May. New Delhi, however, maintains that the US had no involvement in the dispute, and that the resolution was a bilateral decision—taken after a request from Islamabad.

In yet another concerning comment, Munir stated that Pakistan was a nuclear nation and if it went down, it would “take half the world down with us".

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"The Indians should accept their losses ... Sportsman spirit is a virtue," he was heard saying, in an anti-India tirade that also saw him make an analogy about vehicles that was widely ridiculed on social media later on. 

Munir's comments come a day after Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief Air Marshal A.P. Singh's announcement regarding Operation Sindoor, in which the latter claimed that six Pakistani aircraft had been downed during the operation—and the 88-hour hostilities that followed. 

Munir had earlier attended the retirement ceremony of US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief General Michael E. Kurilla in Tampa, as well as the investiture ceremony for General Kurilla's successor Admiral Brad Cooper.