The world is not moving toward denuclearization, quite the contrary. Despite peace treaties, the arms race continues. The nine nuclear powers are increasing or modernizing their arsenals, according to a report on nuclear proliferation published Monday (12) by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).
(RFI) With 5,000 nuclear warheads each, a stable number, the United States and Russia still possess 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons.
In comparison, China’s arsenal is tiny, but by far the fastest growing. Beijing has gone from 350 to 410 nuclear warheads in one year, and it does not intend to stop.
To a much lesser degree, Pakistan, India, and North Korea have also produced new nuclear warheads. The United Kingdom has plans to do the same, but will not reveal further the quantities or the location of deployment. France, meanwhile, is focusing on modernizing its equipment.
Diplomacy in decline
In addition to the five countries that have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty continuing to spend millions on their arsenals, diplomacy is also in decline, according to the report.
In particular, Moscow announced last February that it would no longer participate in the Start Treaty with Washington, which was supposed to limit both nations’ nuclear ambitions.
However, Sipri warns of an increased risk of misunderstandings, accidents, or errors in judgment in a context of rising geopolitical tensions and increasingly less implied verbal threats about the possible use of these weapons of mass destruction.