In a new research series, the institute pointed out that the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Western support for Kiev led to an escalation of tensions between the nine nuclear-armed countries in the world.
Although the number of nuclear weapons decreased slightly between January 2021 and January 2022, the Stockholm Institute said that if nuclear powers did not take immediate action, global nuclear stockpiles could soon begin to rise for the first time in decades.
For his part, the director of the Stockholm Institute’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Program, Wilfried Wan, said in the institute’s 2022 yearbook: “All nuclear-armed states are increasing or developing their arsenals, and most of them are sharpening their nuclear rhetoric and the role that nuclear weapons play in their military strategies, and this The trend is very worrying.”
Russia has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal with a total of 5,977 nuclear warheads, 550 more than the United States.
Both countries own more than 90 percent of the world’s warheads.
The Stockholm Institute said: The global number of nuclear warheads fell to 12,705 in January 2022, from 13,080 in January 2021.
An estimated 3,732 warheads were deployed and about 2,000 warheads, almost all owned by Russia or the United States, were kept on high alert.
“Relationships between the world’s great powers have deteriorated further at a time when humanity and the planet are facing a set of deep and urgent common challenges that can only be addressed through international cooperation,” said Stefan Lofven, Chairman of the Stockholm Institute Board of Directors.
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