The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has predicted that nuclear armament, which has been on a declining trend for years, will increase again.
In its annual report announced today, SIPRI stated the number of nuclear warheads in the world as 12,705. Russia and the US own 90 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads. It is estimated that the number of titles in Russia is 5 thousand 997, and 5 thousand 428 in the USA. Although the number of nuclear warheads decreased in both countries from January 2021 to January 2022, it was stated that this was due to the disassembly of nuclear warheads that the armies had been discarding for years. It was stated that the number of titles available remained relatively constant. The Institute predicted that the number of nuclear warheads would increase again over the next ten years.
“Since the end of the Cold War, there has been a clear sign that the denuclearization has come to an end,” said SIPRI expert Hans M. Kristensen. Matt Korda, another SIPRI expert, said that the number of nuclear weapons in the world could increase again for the first time since the Cold War, unless immediate and concrete disarmament steps are taken in the 9 nuclear-armed countries.
According to the SIPRI report, both the United States and Russia are conducting extensive and costly programs for the modernization of nuclear warheads, carrier systems and production facilities. The same goes for the nuclear weapons of Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.
According to SIPRI, all of these countries have developed or deployed new weapon systems or have announced that they will. None of these countries has any intention of nuclear disarmament. China has put before it the comprehensive development of its nuclear weapons arsenal. The UK has announced that it will raise the upper limit for its nuclear weapons inventory in 2021.
The number of nuclear weapons around the world has been declining steadily for years. The number of nuclear weapons in the world is only one-fifth of the number of nuclear weapons available in the 1980s, during the Cold War. Last year, however, SIPRI identified a new trend towards modern nuclear weapons.
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Germany does not have nuclear weapons. The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the USA, Russia, England, France and China, made a joint statement at the beginning of the year at the beginning of January, saying, “We emphasize that a nuclear war cannot be won and should never be waged,” and promised to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Despite this statement, SIPRI warned that all five countries are expanding or modernizing their nuclear arsenals. For example, Russia has openly stated that it may resort to the use of nuclear weapons during the Ukraine war, which it started on February 24.
“THE RISK OF USING NUCLEAR WEAPONS IS HIGHEST SINCE THE COLD WAR”
“Although some important steps were taken in the past year in nuclear weapons control and nuclear disarmament, the risk of nuclear weapons use now is the highest since the Cold War was at its height,” said SIPRI Director Dan Smith.
SIPRI expert Kristensen also predicted that the Ukraine war will contribute to the nuclear proliferation trend in the world. “The Russians see that their conventional armed forces are not as good as they think,” said Kristensen, adding that Moscow may therefore resort to nuclear weapons more in the future. He added that NATO also realized the importance of nuclear weapons during the Ukraine War.
Kristensen also believes that the risk of a nuclear conflict has increased with the Ukraine War. Stating that the Ukraine War could turn into a conflict between Russia and NATO, the SIPRI expert also drew attention to the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan, the ever-growing hostilities on the China-India border and the nuclear armament efforts of North Korea.
Kristensen said, “All these things add up. That’s why we can say that we are in an extremely precarious situation right now”.
dpa, Reuters/EC, JD