The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons says the estimated global spending on nuclear arsenals last year totaled 91.4 billion dollars. The figure marked an increase of more than 13 percent from the previous year.
ICAN released on Monday the estimated spending by nine countries on nuclear weapons in 2023.
These countries include the five nuclear weapons states recognized under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons — the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China — plus India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea.
The estimated spending totaled about 91.4 billion dollars in 2023, posting an increase of 13.4 percent from the previous year.
The US spent about 51.1 billion dollars on nuclear arms, which was the largest among the nine countries and accounted for more than half of the total. The spending showed the sharpest year-on-year increase of 17.8 percent.
It was followed by China with 11.9 billion dollars, up 6.7 percent, and Russia with 8.3 billion dollars, up 6.1 percent.
ICAN said publicly available information on North Korea’s nuclear-arms expenditure is extremely limited. But ICAN estimated the country’s spending rose by 4.7 percent to 856 million dollars.
ICAN said global spending on nuclear weapons rose by 34 percent compared to 2019, when it began publishing such data.
ICAN said, “The acceleration of spending on these inhumane and destructive weapons over the past five years is not improving global security but posing a global threat.”