India Surpasses Pakistan With More Nuclear Weapons For The First Time: Report (image-X/VivekSi85847001)

According to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), for the first time in 25 years, India has surpassed Pakistan in terms of its arsenal of nuclear weapons. The arms tracker revealed that India now possesses 172 warheads, while Pakistan has 170.

SIPRI stated that, for India’s nuclear deterrent, Pakistan remained the primary focus. However, the country has also been emphasising the need for longer-range weapons, including ones capable of locking targets across China.

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Apart from India and Pakistan, which are part of the nine nations with nuclear power, other countries such as Israel, China, the UK, North Korea, France, Russia, and the US have continued modernising and improving their nuclear weapons. Together, the nine countries possessed an estimated number of 12,121 warheads since January 2024. The report revealed that in 2023, several of the countries also deployed new nuclear-capable weapon systems.

The Swedish think tank said that China has increased its number of nuclear weapons from 410 in January last year to 500 in January this year. The number is expected to keep growing in the following year; however, it is expected to remain much smaller than Russia and the US’ stockpiles, stated SIPRI.

Both Russia and the US possess a total of almost 90 percent of all nuclear weapons in the world. The former is estimated to have deployed nearly 36 warheads, more than it did in January 2023, with operational forces.

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While North Korea tested a short-range silo-launched ballistic missile for the first time in 2023, the country completed the development of “at least two types of land-cruise missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons,” stated the report.

According to the arms tracker, Israel is working on upgrading its plutonium production reactor site at Dimona.

The number and types of nuclear weapons in development have increased as states deepen their reliance on nuclear deterrence ➡️ https://t.co/gcpKWFix37

Key takeaways in the thread below🧵 pic.twitter.com/KfGXZDaGuI

— SIPRI (@SIPRIorg) June 17, 2024