Nuke arms control outlook bleak: report

Nuclear powers continue to modernise their arsenals, researchers said yesterday, warning that tensions were rising and the outlook for arms control was "bleak".

"The loss of key channels of communication between Russia and the USA... could potentially lead to a new nuclear arms race," said Shannon Kile, director of the nuclear arms control programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and co-author of the report.

Kile was referring to the future of the New START treaty between the US and Russia, which is set to expire in February 2021. It is the final nuclear deal still in force between the two superpowers.

At the same time, nuclear powers continue to modernise their weapons while China and India are increasing the size of their arsenals.

The number of nuclear warheads declined in the past year. At the start of 2020, US, Russia, Britain, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea together had 13,400 nuclear arms, according to SIPRI's estimates, 465 fewer than at the start of 2019. Russia and the US account for more than 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons.

The number of nuclear arms worldwide has declined since hitting a peak of almost 70,000 in the mid-1980s.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), a cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The five original nuclear powers -- Washington, Beijing, Moscow, Paris and London -- in March reiterated their commitment to NPT.