"We haven't seen nuclear weapons play such an important role in international relations since the Cold War."
The role of nuclear weapons is becoming more important, and nuclear states are upgrading their arsenals as geopolitical relations deteriorate, researchers said. They urged world leaders to "step back and think".
Diplomatic efforts to control nuclear arms have also suffered major setbacks amid strained international relations over the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its annual yearbook.
"We have not seen nuclear weapons play such an important role in international relations since the Cold War," Wilfred Wan, director of SIPRI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Program, said in a statement.
The research institute noted that in February 2023, Russia announced it was ending its participation in the 2010 New START Treaty, "the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty limiting the strategic nuclear forces of Russia and the United States."
SIPRI also noted that Russia conducted tactical nuclear weapons exercises near the Ukrainian border in May.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up his nuclear rhetoric since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, warning in an address to the nation in February that there was a "real" risk of nuclear war.
In addition, the informal agreement between the US and Iran, reached in June 2023, was violated after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October, SIPRI said.
According to SIPRI, the world's nine nuclear states also "continue to modernize their nuclear arsenals, and several of them have new nuclear weapons or nuclear weapons systems in place in 2023."
The nine countries are the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel.
In January, of an estimated 12,121 nuclear warheads worldwide, about 9,585 were in stockpiles for potential use, according to SIPRI.
About 2,100 were on "high operational readiness" of ballistic missiles.
Almost all of these warheads belong to Russia and the United States - which together possess almost 90% of all nuclear weapons - but for the first time, China is believed to have some warheads on high operational readiness.
"Although the total number of nuclear warheads in the world continues to decline as Cold War-era weapons are gradually dismantled, we unfortunately continue to see an annual increase in the number of nuclear warheads in operation," said SIPRI Director Dan Smith.
He added that this trend is likely to continue and "probably accelerate" in the coming years, describing it as "extremely worrying".
The researchers also highlighted the "continued deterioration of global security over the past year", as the impact of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza can be seen in "almost every aspect" of arms and international security issues.
"We are currently in one of the most dangerous periods in human history," Smith said, calling on the world's major powers to "step back and think." Preferably together." | BGNES
