Asia

India and Pakistan Continue to Increase Nuclear Weapons Stockpiles – Report

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's (SIPRI) annual report on the current state of armaments, disarmament and international security notes that despite the overall decrease in global nuclear weapons year-on-year, India and Pakistan are doing the opposite.
Sputnik

New Delhi (Sputnik) – A report released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has revealed that the two South Asian neighbors and traditional rivals India and Pakistan are expanding their nuclear stockpiles at the same pace, while Pakistan still remains ahead of India in terms of the number of nuclear warheads. 

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"India, which had an estimated 120-130 nuclear warheads as per 2017 report, now has 130-140 warheads. Similarly, Pakistan, which had 130-140 warheads now has increased to 140-150 warheads. Both countries are also developing new land, sea and air-based missile delivery systems," the report reads.

The SIPRI report claims that there are nine countries which have nuclear warheads, which include Russia, the US, the UK, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea.

Similarly, going by the SIPRI estimates, another nuclear country in Asia, China is continuing to modernize its nuclear weapon delivery systems and is slowly increasing the size of its nuclear arsenal. The country now has an estimated 280 nuclear warheads, ten more than last year.

The US and Russia still own the bulk of the approximately 14,465 nuclear weapons that exist in the world. Together, they account for nearly 92 percent of all nuclear weapons present in the world today.

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