Almost three decades after the end of the Cold War, there are still more than 13,000 nuclear weapons on Earth. The total number of nuclear warheads owned by the nuclear powers declined by around 3.5 percent in 2019 to an estimated 13,400, according to the annual report published by the Stockholm Peace Research Institute SIPRI today.
Nevertheless, the peace researchers warned that growing importance will once again be attached to the nuclear arsenals. All nuclear powers are in the process of modernizing their nuclear weapons.
It seems that all nine nuclear weapon states want to hold onto their arsenals indefinitely, SIPRI expert Shannon Kile told dpa.
„Growing importance of nuclear weapons“
Russia and the United States, which together still hold more than 90 percent of the nuclear warheads, have given nuclear weapons new and larger roles in their military plans, which corresponds to a change in trend compared to the post-Cold War period. „What worries us overall is the growing importance of nuclear weapons,“ said Kile.
