Moscow: Drawing an analogy between the Russia-American relations in the 1980s and the current Indo-Pak relations, a top Russian defence expert has said chances of India and Pakistan trading nuclear strikes in the event of a military conflict were remote.

"It seems that just like in the Russian-American relations in 1980s, the factor of self-restraint, which was of incredible significance, here also is beginning to play its role," chief of the Moscow office of Washington-based Centre for Defence Information (CDI), Ivan Safranchuk, said.

"Since 1998 (after nuclear tests), India and Pakistan are learning to be nuclear powers, albeit with difficulty and mistakes," Safranchuk said on the state- run 'Mayak-24' radio station.

"After acquiring their nuclear weapons, India and Pakistan were on the brink of an armed conflict on two occasions. They reached this stage very easily and in both the cases (Kargil and 2002 stand-off), the escalation of crisis was very quick, but all of a sudden they stopped," he said.

"The excessive might does not give the freedom to act. In my view, this process of learning to live with immense might would continue," he said ruling out a nuclear war between the South Asian rivals.

He reminded that currently both in India and Pakistan, "hawks" were in power and the fact that they were showing such restraint evoked optimism since any other regime would be "softer", except if the radical Islamists came to power in Islamabad.

PTI