Indians, Pakistanis See Each Other as Top Threats and Differ on Global Order

Pew Research Center | Jacob Poushter,Sneha Gubbala and William Miner

India and Pakistan continue to view each other as their principal geopolitical threat, according to public opinion surveys conducted across South Asia between February and May 2026. Fifty-four percent of Indian respondents identify Pakistan as their primary national security threat, while forty-three percent of Pakistani respondents designate India as their leading threat.

Deep-seated structural mistrust reinforces this rivalry, with seventy-eight percent of Indians and ninety percent of Pakistanis expressing unfavorable views toward their neighbor. Strategic preferences further split the two nuclear-armed states. Seventy-five percent of Pakistanis consider China their top international ally, backing Beijing with ninety percent favorability and eighty-three percent confidence in President Xi Jinping. In contrast, thirty-six percent of Indians name Russia as their primary ally, while sixteen percent cite the United States and twenty-one percent view China as a major threat. Furthermore, twenty-four percent of Pakistanis identify the United States and Israel as major threats.

Comment

The sharp divergence in public alignment preferences reinforces structural friction within multilateral formats like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. While Beijing deepens its bilateral security ties with Islamabad through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, New Delhi's parallel integration into the Quad creates opposing geopolitical vectors. This systemic misalignment limits collective security coordination across South Asian security architectures.

A comparable alignment split occurred following the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, when Soviet backing for New Delhi and Sino-American support for Islamabad locked the subcontinent into competing external power blocks. Consequently, bilateral confidence-building measures at the Wagah border post remain hostage to broader strategic rivalry between Washington and Beijing.

Strategic Question for Discussion

Which factor exerts greater influence on South Asian security dynamics — the economic integration driven by the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or the maritime security alignment fostered by the Quad — and how do their competing objectives alter border stability?

The pattern suggests that maritime alignment under the Quad generates a more immediate geopolitical counterweight, whereas the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor imposes long-term structural dependencies on Islamabad. Consequently, competitive infrastructure funding and naval presence in the Indian Ocean will likely exacerbate bilateral friction along disputed frontiers rather than encouraging diplomatic de-escalation.

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