‘Annual assessment of ‘state of armaments, disarmament and international security’

30th June, 2023 Defence

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Context:.Global inventory of nuclear warheads has increased over the past year as per the ‘Annual assessment of ‘state of armaments, disarmament and international security.’

Annual assessment of ‘state of armaments, disarmament and international security

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) releases its annual assessment of ‘state of armaments, disarmament and international security’.
SIPRI is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament.
It is a Sweden-based think tank.

Findings of the report

China’s nuclear arsenal increased from 350 warheads in January 2022 to 410 in January 2023.
India was estimated to have a growing stockpile of about 164 nuclear weapons, up from 160 the previous year.
Pakistan possessed approximately 170 nuclear warheads as of January 2023 up from 165 from the previous year.
As of January 2023, the world has 9,576 Nuclear weapons in military stockpiles for potential use. It was 86 more than the number in January 2022.
Of this stockpile, an estimated 3,844 warheads were ‘deployed’ with missiles and aircraft.
Around 2,000 of these ‘deployed’ weapons, nearly all of which belonged to Russia or the USA, were kept in a state of high operational alert. This means that they were fitted to missiles or held at airbases hosting nuclear bombers.

Other reports by SIPRI

Trends in International Arms Transfers

As per the Trends in International Arms Transfers report, 2023, India is the world’s largest importer of military equipment, although an 11% decline in arms purchases between 2013–17 and 2018–22 was seen.
India was a largest among the world’s arms importers in the past five years at 11%, followed by Saudi Arabia (9.6%), Qatar (6.4%), Australia (4.7%), and China (4.7%).

Conclusion

The number of operational nuclear weapons has started to rise as countries' long-term force modernisation and expansion plans progressed. Nuclear Missiles should only be developed as a means of “Minimum credible deterrence” and the world must adhere to the “No first use policy” of India.

PRACTICE QUESTIONS

Consider the following states