Pakistani leaders have said that nuclear weapons could be used early in a war, while the Indian military plans on the assumption of a long conventional war that would include counterforce attacks which would also debilitate the Pakistani command and control system. Pakistan relies on the French Mirage III and V attack aircraft, if not the US F-16. Arms suppliers have furnished India with the technology that could make a counterforce attack against Pakistan's air bases successful, creating a much greater incentive for Pakistan to deploy nuclear armed ballistic missiles and perhaps more nuclear warheads and the materials of which they are made. India's reluctance to enter international arms control commitments stems from an exaggerated perception of the risks arms control poses for the nuclear option rather than the purported fear of China. Sino-Indian relations are improving and neither side has taken the other into account in its nuclear planning.
Nuclear weapons are irrelevant to the border dispute in any case.
Although the economic costs of the Indian and Pakistani nuclear options are relatively low, the indirect cost in terms of the poor reliability and safety of their civilian nuclear power sectors is attributable to the two states' isolation because of their nuclear options and their refusal to accede to the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.