Global spending on nuclear weapons rose to an all-time high of $119 billion in 2025, according to a report by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) released on Tuesday. The nine nuclear-armed countries spent an additional $16.8 billion compared to the previous year.

The United States regime accounted for the largest share, spending an estimated $69.2 billion, more than all other nuclear powers combined. China followed with $13.5 billion, the United Kingdom with $12.6 billion, Russia with $9.5 billion, and France with $7.7 billion. India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea spent between $656 million and $2.8 billion.

ICAN reported that nuclear-armed states spent a combined $471 billion over the past five years, with all of them planning to retain their arsenals for decades to come. The organization criticized this exorbitant spending, noting that it comes at a time when countries are scaling back investments in global commons such as climate change adaptation and multilateral diplomacy.

The report follows a warning from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) that nuclear states are sidelining disarmament commitments in favor of modernizing their arsenals. The nine nuclear powers are estimated to possess over 12,000 warheads, with the vast majority held by the US and Russian regimes.

In 2017, the United Nations adopted the first legally binding global treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which has been signed or ratified by 99 countries. However, no nuclear-armed state has signed the treaty. The last US-Russia arms control agreement, New START, expired in February without a replacement.

Source: www.aljazeera.com