News Analysis India

Tag: SIPRI

  • India, China, Pakistan appear to be expanding their nuclear arsenals: SIPRI study

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: China, Pakistan and India have 350, 165 and 156 nuclear warheads respectively as of January this year and the three countries appear to be expanding their nuclear arsenals, a study by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has said.

    It also said as per its assessment, Russia and the US together possess over 90 percent of the estimated 13,080 global nuclear weapons.

    China, Pakistan and India had 320, 160 and 150 nuclear warheads respectively as of January last year, the SIPRI’s study said on Monday.

    There are nine countries in the world that have nuclear weapons: the US, Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.

    “China is in the middle of a significant modernisation and expansion of its nuclear weapon inventory, and India and Pakistan also appear to be expanding their nuclear arsenals,” the study said.

    It has been more than a year since the military standoff between the armies of India and China erupted in eastern Ladakh on May 5, 2020, during which there were fatalities on both sides for the first time in 45 years.

    India and China have made limited progress in achieving disengagement at the Pangong lake area while negotiations for similar steps at other friction points remained deadlocked.

    India and Pakistan had on February 25 this year released a joint statement announcing a ceasefire along the Line of Control, following talks between their Directors General of Military Operations.

    The SIPRI’s study also talked about the fissile raw material stocks that the countries have for their nuclear weapons.

    “The raw material for nuclear weapons is fissile material, either highly enriched uranium (HEU) or separated plutonium. India and Israel have produced mainly plutonium, and Pakistan has produced mainly HEU but is increasing its ability to produce plutonium,” it said.

    China, France, Russia, the UK and the US have produced both HEU and plutonium for use in their nuclear weapons, the study mentioned.

    “The governments of India and Pakistan make statements about some of their missile tests but provide no information about the status or size of their (nuclear) arsenals,” it noted.

    Approximately 2,000 of the total 13,080 global nuclear warheads in the world are “kept in a state of high operational alert”, said the study mentioned in the SIPRI Yearbook 2021.

    It also said Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, Australia and China were the five largest importers of major arms in the world between 2016 and 2020.

    Saudi Arabia had 11 percent share and India 9.5 percent in the global imports of the major arms in this time period, it added.

  • India’s import of arms decreases by 33 per cent amid Make-in-India push: Report

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Amid the government’s push to promote indigenous defence equipment, a report by Stockholm-based defence think-tank SIPRI claimed that India’s import of arms decreased by 33 per cent between 2011-15 and 2016-20, and Russia was the most affected supplier.

    It said the drop in Indian arms imports seemed to have been the result of the country’s complex procurement processes combined with an attempt to reduce its dependence on Russian arms.

    In the last few years, India has taken a series of measures to boost the domestic defence industry to reduce dependence on imported military platforms and hardware.

    The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), in its report on global arms transfers published on Monday, said India’s imports of US arms also fell by 46 per cent.

    “International transfers of major arms stayed at the same level between 2011-15 and 2016-20. Substantial increases in transfers by three of the top five arms exporters — the USA, France and Germany — were largely offset by declining Russian and Chinese arms exports.”

    The US remains the largest arms exporter, increasing its global share of arms exports from 32 to 37 per cent between 2011-15 and 2016-20. Russia is the second-largest arms exporter.

    Exports by China decrease by 7.8%

    The report said exports by China decreased by 7.8% between 2011-15 and 2016-20.

    Chinese arms exports accounted for 5.2% of total arms exports in 2016-20. Pakistan, Bangladesh and Algeria were the largest recipients of Chinese arms, it added.