The nine states with nuclear arsenals (Russia, the US, France, India, China, Israel, the UK, Pakistan and North Korea) are all modernizing and many of them have developed new ones in 2023 systems, the institute emphasizes in its new research.
Amid escalating geopolitical tensions globally, nuclear powers continue to modernize their arsenals, researchers said today, calling on their leaders to “take a step back and think”.
“We haven’t seen nuclear weapons play such an important role in international relations since the Cold War,” summarizes Wilfred Wan, director of the program on weapons of mass destruction at the Stockholm-based International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The nine states with nuclear arsenals (Russia, the US, France, India, China, Israel, the UK, Pakistan and North Korea) are all modernizing and many of them have developed new ones in 2023 systems, the institute emphasizes in its new research.
In January, of the approximately 12,121 nuclear warheads in the world, 9,585 were ready to be used.
About 2,100 of the latter were kept on “high operational alert”, mounted on ballistic missiles.
Almost all of these nuclear warheads belong to Russia and the US — the two countries that possess 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons.
For the first time, however, SIPRI also points out, China has put “certain warheads on high operational alert” — meaning ready to launch immediately.
“We live today in one of the most dangerous times in human history,” warns Dan Smith, the director of SIPRI.
“The sources of instability are numerous: political rivalries, economic inequalities, environmental complications, accelerating arms races. We are facing the abyss and it is time for the big powers to take a step back and think. Preferably together.”
In February 2023, Russia announced that it was suspending its participation in the New START treaty — “the last control treaty (…) that limited the strategic nuclear forces of Russia and the United States.”
The Institute records that Moscow conducted regular nuclear weapons drills on the border with Ukraine in May.
Although “the total number of nuclear warheads continues to decline as Cold War-era weapons are progressively destroyed,” there is a year-on-year increase in “the number of operational nuclear warheads” by nuclear powers, the director of the SIPRI.
He adds that the trend will continue and “probably accelerate” in the coming years.
Source :Skai
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