The states with nuclear weapons spent more than $ 100 billion on their atomic arsenals last year, according to an international campaign report for the abolition of nuclear weapons (ICAN) published on Friday.
This organization based in Geneva (Switzerland) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for its key role in the writing of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in 2021. Around 69 countries have ratified it to date. Four others joined directly and another 25 signed it. But none of the states with nuclear weapons have committed to it.
According to Ican, which deplores the opacity of these expenses, the United Kingdom, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States have dedicated almost $ 10 billion more than 2023 for their nuclear arsenals last year.
The United States has spent $ 56.8 billion, followed by China with 12.5 billion and the United Kingdom with 10.4 billion ICAN estimates in its annual report, which refers. France is in fifth position in 2024 with almost $ 7 billion spent (almost 6 billion euros), 13%more.
25 billion in five years for France
Ican is also taking stock of the last five years of nuclear arsenal spending. The nuclear powers spent almost $ 416 billion during this period. Paris is in fifth position during the period with $ 29.2 billion (25.3 billion euros), far behind the United States, China, the United Kingdom and Russia.
France has less than 300 nuclear weapons, according to President Emmanuel Macron. The Federation of American scientists estimates that France has 290 nuclear weapons, which have been full from airplanes and submarines. French nuclear submarines are equipped with M51 nuclear missiles and French airplanes can launch Asmpa missiles. The nuclear prohibition monitor estimates that the explosive power of the French nuclear arsenal is equivalent to 1,993 Hiroshima bombs.
The 2024 French defense bill increased the budget dedicated to nuclear weapons (“deterrence”) by 750 million euros (812 million dollars), to reach a total of 6.4 billion euros ($ 6.9 billion) in 2024. This amount includes the annual costs of nuclear dark circles and the renewal of launch missiles, submarine missiles and submarines of nuclear capacity.
Ican estimates that France dedicated about 11% of its total military budget to nuclear weapons in 2024, not to mention the expenses related to the explosion plan that can be used to launch nuclear weapons.
American nuclear weapons organized in Europe
This year’s report is interested in costs supported by countries that house other nuclear weapons states. These costs, deploy Ican, are widely unknown to citizens and elected officials and, therefore, escape any democratic examination.
Although this is not officially confirmed, the report, citing experts, believes that Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Türkiye receive American nuclear weapons. Russia, on the other hand, claims to have deployed nuclear weapons in the Bélarus, but some experts doubt it, according to Ican.
There is “little public information” about the costs associated with the accommodation of US nuclear weapons in NATO European countries, laments ICAN. Among these costs are those related to the security of facilities and the maintenance of plans capable of transporting atomic weapons.
And for her co-author, Alicia Sanders-Zakre, “the fact that citizens and elected officials have no right to know that the nuclear weapons of other countries are based on their soil or which part of their taxes is dedicated to it is an affront to democracy.”
“Special interests”
Eight countries openly have nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea. It is presumed that Israel has nuclear weapons, although it has never officially recognized it.
According to ICAN calculations, the expenses of these nine countries for their nuclear weapons in 2024 could have covered the UN budget almost 28 times.
The private sector won at least $ 42.5 billion thanks to nuclear weapons contracts only in 2024, according to the report. These contracts, some of which are not expressed before decades, represent at least $ 463 billion in total, including at least 20 billion granted last year, ICAN continues.
“Many of the companies that have benefited from this unexpected gain have invested greatly in the lobbying with governments, spending $ 128 million in these efforts in the United States and France, the two countries for which the data is available,” said ICAN.
The standard nuclear doctrine, developed during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, is based on the assurance of insured mutual destruction: the nuclear weapon will never be used, because the state that will do it the first is safe to suffer in at least identical destruction.
Source: BFM TV
