In the midst of the tensions and confrontations the world is witnessing between Russia and Ukraine. Several countries are directing their compass towards nuclear rearmament, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which predicted the growth of the global nuclear arsenal in the coming years, for the first time since the Cold War.

How is this arsenal distributed?
Moscow and Washington account for 90% of the world’s nuclear arsenal, while Russia remains the largest nuclear power with 5,977 warheads. The United States has 5,428 warheads.

In terms of total numbers, China comes third (350), followed by France (290), Britain (225), Pakistan (165), India (160), and Israel is the only country that does not officially recognize its possession of nuclear weapons with ninety warheads.

As for North Korea, the institute indicated that it possesses twenty nuclear warheads for the first time.

Despite the entry into force of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in early 2021 and the extension of the new US-Russian START Treaty by five years, the situation is deteriorating, according to the Stockholm Institute.

This year, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council that are nuclear-armed issued a statement stating that “nuclear war cannot be won, and it must never be fought.”

However, the Stockholm Institute pointed to the modernization of its nuclear arsenals as fundamental to its military strategies.