SPIRI: Nuclear powers to reverse post-Cold War drop in arsenals

PanARMENIAN.Net - The world’s nuclear-armed nations are set to boost their arsenals in the next decade, even as the number of such weapons fell last year, according to a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, Bloomberg reports.

“All of the nuclear-armed states are increasing or upgrading their arsenals and most are sharpening nuclear rhetoric and the role nuclear weapons play in their military strategies,” Wilfred Wan, Director of SIPRI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme, said in a statement on Monday.

That development could reverse a decades-long trend of reduced nuclear stockpiles. By the start of 2022, the global inventory of warheads had declined to 12,705, from more than 34,000 at the beginning of this century, according to SIPRI. While the number of usable nukes has stabilized, total stockpiles continued shrinking last year, as Russia and the US dismantled long-retired warheads.

The risk of nuclear conflict got renewed attention following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, with Western intelligence officials warning that the Kremlin might turn to tactical or other limited nuclear weapons if its war in Ukraine continues to struggle.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in April his country is committed to avoiding nuclear war, while Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns reiterated last month there is no evidence of Russia planning to deploy or potentially use tactical nuclear weapons.