SIPRI: China is the fastest growing nuclear arsenal in the world – 100 warheads added in a year

China is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other country, according to a report by the independent international institute SIPRI.

In 2025, the PRC will possess 600 nuclear warheads – 100 more than in 2024. According to SIPRI, the country's nuclear arsenal has been growing at this rate since 2023.

"By January 2025, China had completed or was close to completing around 350 new ICBM silos in three large desert fields in the north of the country and three mountainous areas in the east," the SIPRI report said.

Experts point out that depending on how China decides to structure its armed forces, by the end of the decade it could potentially have at least as many intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as Russia or the United States. China currently ranks third in the world in terms of nuclear warheads.

At the same time, SIPRI also noted that almost all nine states possessing nuclear weapons in 2024 continued intensive nuclear weapons modernization programs, updating existing weapons and adding new versions.

In 2025, the list of states with nuclear warheads, according to the institute's estimates, looks like this: the USA (5,177 units), the Russian Federation (5,459), the United Kingdom (225), France (290), China (600), India (180), Pakistan (170), North Korea (50), Israel (90).

"Of the total global inventory of an estimated 12 241 warheads in January 2025, about 9614 were in military stockpiles for potential use (see the table below)," SIPRI noted.

The organization's experts also believe that the era of reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the world, which has lasted since the end of the Cold War, is coming to an end. Instead, there is a clear trend towards the growth of nuclear arsenals, the escalation of nuclear rhetoric, and the rejection of arms control agreements.

By the way, after the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine voluntarily gave up its nuclear arsenal in 1994, signing the Budapest Memorandum. Currently, our country does not possess nuclear weapons and adheres to the status of a nuclear-free state.