The nine nuclear armed states – the U.S., Russia, the U.K., France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea – together possessed an estimated 13,080 nuclear weapons at the start of 2021. Russia and the U.S. together possessed over 90% of global nuclear weapons and have extensive and expensive modernisation programmes under way, SIPRI said.
Approximately 2,000 of the total 13,080 global nuclear warheads in the world are “kept in a state of high operational alert”, said the study mentioned in the SIPRI Yearbook 2021. It also said Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, Australia and China were the five largest importers of major arms in the world between 2016 and 2020. Saudi Arabia had 11 percent share and India 9.5 percent in the global imports of the major arms in this time period, it added.
India and Pakistan are seeking new technologies and capabilities that dangerously undermine each other’s defence under the nuclear threshold. Whatever they learn from past crises, the uncharted territory they are now exploring requires enlightened judgement about their doctrines, their nuclear and conventional capabilities, and their unpredictable implications in future crises,” said the report by Antoine Levesques, Research Fellow at the IISS as the lead author.
Saudi Arabia had 11 percent share and India 9.5 percent in the global imports of the major arms in this time period, it added.
