Nuclear weapons threat not decreasing
STOCKHOLM: More than 5,000 nuclear weapons are deployed around the
world and nuclear powers continue investing in new weapon systems,
making meaningful disarmament in the near future unlikely, a report
published Tuesday said.
More than 5,000 nuclear weapons are deployed and ready for use,
including nearly 2,000 that are kept in a high state of alert,”
according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute (SIPRI).
SIPRI’s report said the world’s eight nuclear powers – Britain,
China, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia and the US – possess more
than 20,500 warheads. As of January 2011, Russia had 11,000 nuclear
warheads, including 2,427 deployed, while the United States had 8,500
including 2,150 deployed, the report said.
The US and Russia have signed a Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
(START) that calls for a maximum of 1,550 warheads deployed per country.
However SIPRI argued that prospects for meaningful disarmament in the
short term are grim as all eight countries seem committed to either
improving or maintaining their nuclear programmes.
“The five legally recognised nuclear weapons states, as defined by
the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty are either deploying new nuclear
weapon systems or have announced their intention to do so,” the report
said, referring to Britain, China, France, Russia and the US.
India and Pakistan are “expanding their capacity to produce fissile
material for military purposes,” according to the report.
SIPRI Director Daniel Nord said south Asia, where relations between
India and Pakistan seem perpetually tense, is “the only place in the
world where you have a nuclear weapons arms race.” While Israel, which
has never conclusively declared itself a nuclear weapons state but is
almost universally assumed to be one, “appears to be waiting to assess
how the situation with Iran’s nuclear programme develops,” SIPRI said.
Nord argued that because “nuclear weapons states are modernising and
are investing in their nuclear weapons establishments (it) seems
unlikely that there will be any real nuclear weapon disarmament within
the foreseeable future.” The report said that North Korea “is believed
to have produced enough plutonium to build a small number of nuclear
warheads, but there is no public information to verify that it has
operational nuclear weapons.” Nord identified Pakistan “losing control
of part of its nuclear arsenal” to a terrorist group as a specific
concern.
He also voiced worry over the potential consequences if “Israel or
the United States decide that they will have to intervene and do
something about the programme in Iran.” Iran has repeatedly insisted
that its nuclear programme is non-military, but several world powers
have demanded closer international inspection of Iran’s nuclear sites to
verify the claim.
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