Spending by nuclear powers to modernize their atomic arsenals rose nearly 9% in 2021 to $ 82.4 billion, according to a report by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
The United States alone spent $ 44.2 billion on its nuclear program last year, 12.7% more than last year, and China spent $ 11.7 billion (+10 .4%), according to this report published last year Tuesday.
The budgets allocated by Russia (8.6 billion), France (5.9 billion) and the United Kingdom (6.8 billion) to nuclear weapons have increased slightly, theI CAN DO ITwho won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for tirelessly working on the agreement to ban nuclear weapons, which was ratified by 59 countries, but none of the nuclear powers.
Pakistan spent 1.1 billion dollars on its nuclear armament, against 1 billion last year, while India reduced its spending in this sector to 2.3 billion (against 2.5 in 2020), according to the report.
Israel, which has not yet officially admitted to possessing a nuclear bomb, has allocated 1.2 billion to it, as last year, according toI CAN DO IT which estimates the budget North Korea has allocated to its nuclear program in 2021 at $ 642 million, compared to $ 700 million in 2020.
Nuclear weapons are useless
Taxpayer money allows new contracts to be awarded to private companies (30.2 billion in total) to modernize the nuclear arsenal of the great powers, and these private companies in turn buy the services of think tanks and pressure groups to defend the usefulness of nuclear weapons, the addedNGOdenouncing a pronuclear vicious circle.
This report shows that nuclear weapons are uselesscommented Alicia Sanders-Zakre, research coordinator atI CAN DO IT.
Nuclear -armed countries will spend another $ 6.5 billion in 2021 and they have not prevented a nuclear power from starting a war in Europehe said in reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This is why we need multilateral nuclear disarmament more than ever.he added.
France Media Agency
Source: Radio-Canada
