Watchdog: Nuclear-armed nations are deepening reliance on nuclear weapons

Copenhagen, Denmark — The world’s nine nuclear weapons states continue to modernize their nuclear weapons as countries deepen their reliance on such deterrence in 2023, a Swedish think tank said on Monday.

“We haven’t seen nuclear weapons play such a prominent role in international relations since the Cold War,” said Wilfred Wan, director of the weapons of mass destruction program at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Earlier this monthRussia and its ally Belarus launched a second stage of exercises He intended to train his troops in tactical nuclear weaponspart of the Kremlin’s efforts to dissuade the West from increasing its support for Ukraine.

In a separate report, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, ICAN, said the nine nuclear-armed states spent a combined total of $91.4 billion on their arsenals in 2023, equivalent to $2,898 per second. The Geneva-based coalition of disarmament activists He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.

The group said the figures show a $10.7 billion increase in global spending on nuclear weapons in 2023 compared to 2022, with the United States accounting for 80% of that increase. The United States’ share of total spending, $51.5 billion, is larger than that of all other nuclear-armed countries combined.

“There has been a notable upward trend in the amount of money devoted to the development of the most inhumane and destructive weapons over the past five years,” said Alicia Sanders-Zakre, Policy and Research Coordinator at ICAN.

The next biggest spender was China at $11.8 billion, he said, and Russia spent the third most at $8.3 billion.

“All this money does not improve global security; in fact, it threatens people wherever they live,” Sanders-Zakre said.

SIPRI estimated that about 2,100 of the deployed warheads remained on high operational alert for ballistic missiles, and almost all of them belong to Russia or the United States. However, he said China is also believed to have some warheads on high operational alert for the first time.

“Unfortunately we continue to see year-over-year increases in the number of operational nuclear warheads,” said Dan Smith, director of SIPRI. He added that the trend will likely accelerate in the coming years “and is extremely worrying.”

Russia and the United States together have almost 90% of all nuclear weapons, SIPRI stated. The size of its military arsenals appears to have remained relatively stable in 2023, although Russia is estimated to have deployed around 36 more warheads with operational forces than in January 2023, the watchdog added.

In its 2024 SIPRI Yearbook, the institute said transparency regarding nuclear forces has decreased in both countries in the wake of Russia’s large-scale invasion. Ukraine in February 2022, and debates over nuclear energy sharing agreements have gained importance.

Washington suspended its bilateral strategic stability dialogue with Russia, and last year Moscow announced it would suspend its participation in t The New START nuclear treaty.

Of the total global inventory of about 12,121 warheads in January, about 9,585 were in military arsenals for potential use. An estimated 3,904 of those warheads were deployed with missiles and aircraft (60 more than in January 2023) and the rest were in central storage.

In Asia, India, Pakistan and North Korea are pursuing the ability to deploy multiple warheads on ballistic missiles, the institute said. The United States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and China already have such a capability, allowing for a potential rapid increase in deployed warheads, as well as the possibility for nuclear-armed countries to threaten the destruction of many more targets.

SIPRI He emphasized that all estimates were approximate and that the institute revises its global nuclear forces data each year based on new information and updates to previous assessments.