You are here : World News – Russian opinion» RUSSIA» Pity they don’t work towards Covid-19: US drives RECORD world spending on atomic weapons, report reveals
Pity they don’t work towards Covid-19: US drives RECORD world spending on atomic weapons, report reveals
The world’s nuclear powers are more and more pouring cash into their atomic arsenals, a brand new report reveals, with Washington main the way in which. The US has additionally exited a significant arms management treaty and deployed a brand new tactical weapon.
9 nuclear-armed nations spent an estimated $ 72.9 billion on their 13,000-plus atomic weapons in 2019, in accordance with a brand new paper by the Worldwide Marketing campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). At $ 35.four billion in spending, the US accounts for almost half the worldwide whole, ICAN says.
Nevertheless, ICAN identified, all this cash and all these bombs have completed nothing to guard any of those nations from Covid-19.
“It’s clear now greater than ever that nuclear weapons don’t present safety for the world within the midst of a worldwide pandemic,” mentioned Alicia Sanders-Zakre, the lead writer of the report, “notably when there are documented deficits of healthcare provides and exhausted medical professionals.”
Additionally on rt.com
The US’ Covid-19 loss of life toll is hovering, however it retains losing billions on abroad army ops. Is that what taxpayers need?
Washington contributed the lion’s share of the world’s $ 7.1 billion enhance in nuclear expenditures between 2018 and 2019, with $ 5.eight billion in extra spending. That is truly larger than the US share of worldwide army spending, which amounted to 38 p.c in 2019, in accordance with the most recent figures from the Stockholm Worldwide Peace Analysis Institute (SIPRI).
Russia, which ICAN estimated had extra warheads than the US, spent $ eight.5 billion on them in 2019 – 1 / 4 of the US’ nuclear expenditure, in accordance with ICAN’s methodology – trailing China ($ 10.5 billion) and the UK ($ eight.9 billion).
Alarmed by US efforts to bolster its nuclear arsenal, some in China have known as for a drastic atomic build-up of their very own, with a purpose to strain Washington to the negotiating desk.
Additionally on rt.com
In a world gone mad, China should construct MORE NUKES to make disarmament attainable
Fears of medium-range ballistic missiles in Europe triggering a worldwide nuclear struggle led to the 1987 INF arms management treaty, which banned such weapons from the continent – however President Donald Trump’s administration exited the treaty final 12 months. Formally, they claimed Russia had been violating it, however offered no proof. US officers additional argued the INF was out of date anyway, as a result of it didn’t apply to different nuclear powers, equivalent to China.
Earlier this 12 months, the US Navy fielded new low-yield warheads for submarine-launched missiles, arguing in a sequence of place papers that this made nuclear struggle much less possible as a result of it could inject uncertainty into Russian efforts to “escalate to de-escalate,” an idea apparently based mostly not in precise Russian doctrine however in Western Chilly Battle-era army fiction.
Additionally on rt.com
US push for low-yield nukes makes atomic struggle MORE possible as Russia will retaliate with full pressure, Moscow says
Whereas ICAN famous that their figures are estimates based mostly on a constant methodology, the true value of nuclear weapons must embody the bills of compensating the victims of testing and cleansing up the environmental contamination.
