An illustration showing a nuclear explosion.
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The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday released its latest report on global nuclear stockpiles, highlighting that most nuclear-armed nations were modernising their arsenals.
The data shows that China added the most number of warheads to their stockpile between January 2023 and January 2024, during which period Beijing's arsenal grew by 90 warheads.
India, meanwhile, saw it's total number of nuclear warheads increase to 172, from 164 in January 2023. In the same period, however, Pakistan's stockpile remained unchanged.
Beyond India's immediate neighbours, SIPRI noted that the US, Russia, the UK, France, North Korea and Israel continued to modernise their nuclear arsenals, with some even deploying new nuclear-capable weapon systems over the course of last year.
Interestingly, of the nations mentioned in the report, only India, China, and North Korea were reported to have added to their total stockpiles. Nuclear superpowers US and Russia, meanwhile, saw their overall tallies go down from 2023.
In all, SIPRI report put the tally of nuclear warheads at 12,121 as of January 2024, of which it said 2,100 warheads were kept in a state of high operational alert on ballistic missiles.
(With PTI inputs)