China expands nuclear arsenal as global tensions grow

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.

The total amount of nuclear warheads among the nine nuclear powers – Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States – was down to 12,512 at the outset of 2023, from 12,710 at the start of 2022, according to SIPRI.

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.

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