UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that, for the first time in decades, the number of nuclear warheads worldwide has begun to rise.
Speaking at the opening of the 11th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Guterres said some governments are now openly discussing the possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons, while the issue of nuclear testing is re-emerging on the international agenda, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.
He stressed that the global security environment is deteriorating, noting that the number of nuclear warheads is increasing after decades of decline. He also warned that nuclear testing is returning to international discussion and that some states are openly considering acquiring such weapons, underscoring that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be allowed to happen.
Guterres also highlighted the scale of global military spending, which he said reached $2.7 trillion last year. He noted that this figure is 13 times higher than total global development aid and roughly equivalent to the combined gross domestic product of the entire African continent.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the nine nuclear-armed states—Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea—held a total of 12,241 nuclear warheads as of January 2025. SIPRI also reported that the United States and Russia together account for nearly 90 percent of the world’s nuclear arsenal and have continued large-scale modernization programmes in recent years.
The institute added that China has been rapidly expanding its nuclear stockpile. The G7 group has also recently expressed concern over what it describes as increasing nuclear capabilities in both Russia and China.
By Sabina Mammadli
