SIPRI Yearbook 2021: China, India, Pakistan expanding nuclear arsenal

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute(SIPRI) has released the SIPRI Yearbook 2021. The report assesses the current state of armaments, disarmament and international security. China is in the middle of significant modernisation and expansion of its nuclear weapon inventory, and India and Pakistan also appear to be expanding their nuclear arsenals.

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What are the key findings of the SIPRI Yearbook 2021?

According to the yearbook, India possessed an estimated 156 nuclear warheads at the start of 2021 compared to 150 at the start of last year, while Pakistan had 165 warheads, up from 160 in 2020.
China’s nuclear arsenal consisted of 350 warheads up from 320 at the start of 2020.
The nine nuclear-armed states – the U.S., Russia, the U.K., France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea – together possessed an estimated 13,080 nuclear weapons at the start of 2021.
Russia and the U.S. together possessed over 90% of global nuclear weapons and have extensive and expensive modernisation programmes underway.