Global reliance on nuclear weapons rising: SIPRI

17 June, 2024 18:58

The world’s nine nuclear-armed states have raised their reliance on nuclear weapons, a watchdog has said.

A report released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday said the states increased their spending on modernising their atomic arsenals by one-third last year. The watchdog pointed to the contribution of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to the deterioration of international security.

Wilfred Wan, director of SIPRI’s weapons of mass destruction programme, said nuclear weapons have not been seen “playing such a prominent role in international relations since the Cold War”.

The report found that the effects of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza are “visible in almost every aspect of the issues connected to armaments, disarmament and international security examined”.

The nine nuclear armed states – the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel – modernised their nuclear arsenals and several “deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapon systems in 2023”, SIPRI found.

The estimated global inventory of 12,121 warheads in January 2024, marked a reduction of 391 compared with the previous year, a year, with about 9,585 in military stockpiles for possible use.

However, about 3,904 of these were deployed were deployed with missiles and aircraft, which is 60 more than in January 2023.

The vast majority of those deployed warheads belong to Russia and the US, although China is believed to have “some warheads on high operational alert” for the first time.

Separately, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) said the combined total spending on nuclear arsenals grew by $10.7bn to $91.4bn in 2023.