China expands nuclear arsenal as global tensions grow among atomic powers, SIPRI says
- India, Pakistan and North Korea also upped their stockpiles, but the bulk of the increase was from China, which increased its arsenal from 350 to 410 warheads
- ‘What we’re seeing is China stepping up as a world power, that is the reality of our time,’ said the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
The nuclear arsenals of several countries, especially China, grew last year and other atomic powers continued to modernise theirs as geopolitical tensions rise, researchers said on Monday.
“We are approaching, or maybe have already reached, the end of a long period of the number of nuclear weapons worldwide declining,” Dan Smith, director of the think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told Agence France-Presse.
Of those, 9,576 were in “military stockpiles for potential use”, 86 more than a year earlier.
SIPRI distinguishes between countries’ stockpiles available for use and their total inventory – which includes older ones expected to be dismantled.
“The stockpile is the usable nuclear warheads, and those numbers are beginning to tick up,” Smith said, while noting that numbers are still far from the over 70,000 seen during the 1980s.
The bulk of the increase was from China, which increased its stockpile from 350 to 410 warheads.
India, Pakistan and North Korea also upped their stockpiles and Russia’s grew to a smaller extent, from 4,477 to 4,489, while the remaining nuclear powers maintained the size of their arsenal.
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“The big picture is we’ve had over 30 years of the number of nuclear warheads coming down, and we see that process coming to an end now,” Smith said.
For instance, the United States suspended its “bilateral strategic stability dialogue” with Russia in the wake of the invasion.
In February, Moscow announced it was it was suspending participation in the 2010 Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START).
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SIPRI noted in a statement that it “was the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty limiting Russian and US strategic nuclear forces”.
China has also invested heavily in all parts of its military as its economy and influence have grown.
“What we’re seeing is China stepping up as a world power, that is the reality of our time,” Smith said.