India, Pakistan expanding nuclear weapon production capabilities despite disarmament trend: Report

Stockholm, June 16: Despite global trend in disarmament, India and Pakistan are expanding their nuclear weapon production capabilities and developing new missile delivery systems, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has said in its latest release.

SIPRI on Monday launched the findings of SIPRI Yearbook 2015, which assesses the current state of armaments, disarmament and international security.

The key findings of report said that all the nuclear weapon-possessing states are working to develop new nuclear weapon systems and/or upgrade their existing ones; and the number of personnel deployed with peace operations worldwide continues to fall while the number of peace operations increases.

According to the report, "At the start of 2015, nine states US, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea possessed approximately 15,850 nuclear weapons, of which 4300 were deployed with operational forces. Roughly 1800 of these weapons were kept in a state of high operational alert."

The report also claims that the total number of nuclear warheads in the world is declining, primarily due to the USA and Russia continuing to reduce their nuclear arsenals, albeit at slower pace compared with a decade ago.

At the same time, both countries have extensive and expensive long-term modernization programmes under way for their remaining nuclear delivery systems, warheads and production.

"Despite renewed international interest in prioritizing nuclear disarmament, the modernization programmes under way in the nuclear weapon-possessing states suggests that none of them will give up their nuclear arsenals in the foreseeable future," says SIPRI Senior Researcher Shannon Kile.

OneIndia News