In 2023, nine nuclear powers spent a total of $91 billion on their arsenals. The United States accounted for more than half of this amount. russia spent $8.3 billion on its nuclear arsenal last year. This was reported by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in a new report, UNN writes with reference to Deutsche Welle.
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Over the past five years, nuclear-armed states have increased spending on nuclear weapons by one-third, modernizing their arsenals amid growing geopolitical tensions.
According to ICAN, the nine nuclear powers - the United States, China, India, russia, France, the United Kingdom, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea - spent $91 billion on nuclear arsenals last year, with the United States accounting for more than half of this amount - $51.5 billion. China is in second place by a wide margin ($11.8 billion). Russia is in third place ($8.3 billion).
It is noted that in 2023, spending on nuclear weapons increased by $10.8 billion worldwide, with the lion's share of this amount coming from the United States. Spending on nuclear weapons in the UK has been increasing for the second year in a row (+17%) and amounted to $8.1 billion last year. Spending in France, India, Israel, Pakistan, and the DPRK increased by more than 33% from $68.2 billion in 2018, when ICAN prepared its first report.
Since then, the nuclear powers have spent a total of $387 billion on nuclear arsenals, according to ICAN.
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In 2017, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its key role in the development of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in 2021. Alisha Sanders-Zacre, co-author of the ICAN report, said that "instead of investing in Armageddon, the nine nuclear-armed states should follow the example of nearly half the world's countries and join this agreement, thereby making a real contribution to global security.