SINGAPORE, May 31 -- In a rare and significant admission, the Indian military has acknowledged for the first time that it lost fighter jets during the recent clashes with Pakistan earlier this month. However, Indian officials maintain that the four-day conflict never escalated to the brink of nuclear war.

Speaking to Bloomberg TV during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, India's Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, stated, "The more important question is not whether jets were shot down, but why they were shot down." He dismissed Pakistan's claim that six Indian jets were destroyed as "completely false," yet declined to specify how many aircraft India actually lost.

Chauhan added that India recognized the mistakes made during...