GENEVA (Realist English). The world’s leading military powers have spent $82.4 billion to modernize their nuclear weapons in 2021. This is 8% more than a year earlier, according to the annual report of the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which focuses on the costs of nuclear energy.
The largest expenditures were made by the United States, which accounted for more than half of the total expenditures. They are followed by China, Russia, Great Britain and France.
As is noted in the report, “The U.S. spent three times more than the next in line- a whopping $44.2 billion. China was the only other country crossing the ten billion mark, spending $11.7 billion. Russia had the third highest spending at $8.6 billion, though the U.K.’s $6.8 billion and the French $5.9 billion weren’t so far behind. India, Israel, Pakistan also each spent over a billion on their arsenals, while North Korea spent $642 million”.
Experts estimate that $156,841 was spent on nuclear weapons every minute last year.
“The nuclear-weapon states spent an obscene amount of money on illegal weapons of mass destruction in 2021, while most countries in the world support a global ban on nuclear weapons. These costs could not have contained the war in Europe. This money would be better spent on solving current security problems or to deal with the consequences of the still raging global pandemic. This corrupt cycle of wasteful spending must end,” ICAN experts stressed.
Against the backdrop of the fact that 1.4 billion people in the world do not have access to electricity today, and 811 million people regularly lack food (the threat of hunger hangs over 43 countries), the following becomes obvious: the political leaders of different countries have anti-human priorities. Instead of solving the pressing problems of humanity, the rulers of different countries are concerned about the mutual and guaranteed destruction of the human race.
