According to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the number of nuclear weapons and models continues to rise globally, with China's nuclear arsenal growing at a faster rate compared to other nations.

The report states that the nine nuclear-armed states – the United States, Russia, Britain, France, India, China, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel – continued to modernize their nuclear forces in 2023, with some even deploying nuclear weapons during the year.

Regarding Israel, the report notes that while the country does not publicly acknowledge possessing nuclear weapons, it appears to be modernizing its arsenal and potentially upgrading its plutonium production reactor in Dimona.

In total, the nine nuclear-armed states possess 12,121 nuclear warheads, with 9,585 of them being operational as of January 2024. Of these, approximately 3,904 warheads are deployed on missiles and aircraft – an increase of 60 from January 2023 – while the remaining warheads are held in reserve.

The report estimates that around 2,100 warheads are deployed on ballistic missiles and kept in a state of high operational readiness, able to be launched promptly. Nearly all of these high-alert warheads belong to the United States and Russia, which together account for approximately 90% of the global nuclear stockpile. However, for the first time, there are indications that China has also deployed a limited number of warheads in a state of high readiness during peacetime.

According to SIPRI, China's nuclear warhead inventory increased from 410 in January 2023 to 500 in January 2024, and it is expected to continue growing. Experts from the institute estimate that by the end of the decade, depending on how Beijing chooses to build its military forces, China could match or potentially surpass the United States or Russia in the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles it possesses.

"China is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other country," said Hans Kristensen, a senior SIPRI researcher. "But in nearly all of the nuclear-armed states, there are either plans or a significant push to increase nuclear forces."

Wilfred Wan, the director of SIPRI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme, emphasized the heightened significance of nuclear weapons in international relations, stating, "'We have not seen nuclear weapons playing such a prominent role in international relations since the Cold War. It is hard to believe that barely two years have passed since the leaders of the five largest nuclear-armed states jointly reaffirmed that 'a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.'"

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Iran is working to expand and upgrade its weapons of mass destruction arsenal, according to a German intelligence report obtained and published on Monday by conservative news outlet the Washington Free Beacon.

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The Islamic republic is seeking to expand its "conventional arsenal of weapons through the production or constant modernization of weapons of mass destruction," said the German-language report issued last week by the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a state security agency equivalent to the FBI.

The German report, which covers the year 2020 and was independently translated for the Washington Free Beacon, also found that Iran is waging sophisticated espionage activities in the country. Germany is one of several European countries where Iranian spies are known to operate.

"In order to obtain the necessary know-how and corresponding components," Iranian agents in 2020 sought to establish business contacts with German companies operating in the high-tech field while dodging US and international sanctions. "This includes information from foreign and security policy as well as business and science."

The report concluded that "Germany remains in the focus of [Iranian] intelligence activities."

The German intelligence report directly refute claims by Iran's leaders that the country has no interest in building a nuclear bomb and provides the firmest evidence to date that Iran is misleading the world about the nature of its nuclear program.

Iran's intelligence services are also engaged in "the observation of and fight against opposition groups, domestically and abroad," according to the report.

It was unclear if and how the report could influence nuclear talks with Iran, which include the United States and Germany along with Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom.

The German report, according to the Washington Free Beacon, further notes that North Korea, Syria, and Pakistan engaged in similar WMD efforts in 2020.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been one of the leading proponents of the nuclear accord and reopening business ties with Iran.

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