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Eight states — the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan and Israel — currently possess more than 20 500 nuclear weapons, including operational weapons, spares, those in both active and inactive storage and intact weapons scheduled for dismantlement.

Of this total figure, more than 5000 nuclear weapons are deployed and ready for use, including nearly 2000 that are kept in a state of high operational alert, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says in its latest yearbook, released yesterday.

The five legally recognised nuclear weapon states, as defined by the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) — China, France, Russia, the UK and the USA — are either deploying new nuclear weapon systems or have announced their intention to do so; none appears to be prepared to give up its nuclear arsenals in the foreseeable future.

India and Pakistan, which along with Israel are de facto nuclear weapon states outside the NPT, continue to develop new ballistic and cruise missile systems capable of delivering nuclear weapons. They are also expanding their capacities to produce fissile material for military purposes. Israel appears to be waiting to assess how the situation with Iran’s nuclear programme develops, SIPRI said. North Korea is believed to have produced enough plutonium to build a small number of nuclear warheads, but there is no public information to verify that it has operational nuclear... >>>