By Dr Arun Mitra
The recent report on the state of annual assessment of the state of armaments, disarmament and international security released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on 12th June 2023 is startling. The report highlights that the ‘number of operational nuclear weapons has increased because several countries have expanded their long-term force modernization plans’. At present it is estimated that there were 12 512 warheads in January 2023. Out of this about 9576 were in military stockpiles for potential use which is 86 more than in January 2022.
Of those, an estimated 3844 warheads were deployed with missiles and aircraft, and around 2000—nearly all of which belonged to Russia or the USA—were kept in a state of high operational alert, meaning that they were fitted to missiles or held at airbases hosting nuclear bombers. The report further elaborates that Russia and the USA together possess almost 90 per cent of all nuclear weapons.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in its fourth annual report on nuclear weapon spending today: “Wasted: 2022 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending” has come out with the data of country wise spending on nuclear weapons in 2022. The United States: $43.7 billion, $83,143/ minute; China: $11.7 billion, $22,219/ minute; Russia: $9.6 billion, $18,228/ minute; The United Kingdom: $6.8 billion, $12,975/ minute; France: $5.6 billion, $10,603/ minute; India: $2.7 billion, $5,181/ minute; Israel: $1.2 billion, $2,226/ minute; Pakistan: $1 billion, $1,967/ minute; North Korea: $589 million, $1,221/ minute.
Comparing it with social needs the report says that the year 2022 Nuclear weapons spending for the entire year could have Covered 37% of climate change adaptation costs for developing countries or Set up 16 million homes with solar power or Paid the annual salary of 740 thousand nurses. Nuclear weapons spending per minute in 2022 could have Provided clean water sanitation for 2.4 thousand people or Paid for 3.9 thousand COVID vaccines or Hired three high-school science teachers or Paid for 20 U.S. public housing units.
These reports point out the danger of existence to the mankind in case of their use. They also caution us about the resource crunch which is created as a result of wasteful expenditure on the arms race.
The arms race is increasing at a time when the world has just come out of the pandemic. The global capacity to deal with the pandemic stands exposed. In the present world of science and technology we witnessed 6,943,390 deaths globally as per the WHO till 14th June 2023. Unofficial figures could be even higher. The problem of unavailability of drugs, equipment and vaccines has been very acute. Smaller countries which lacked resources and knowhow to make vaccines or drugs suffered the most. Vaccine producing companies made huge profits during this period. There are reports of black mail of the small countries by these companies.
These countries had to accept several clauses which would favour only the vaccine manufacturer. In an article published in the Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, Education and Research, Dr Samir Malhotra, Professor of Pharmacology Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh has pointed that the COVID-19 scare forced many governments to enter into contracts with the companies developing vaccines. Many of these contracts had confidentiality clauses according to which the company was exempted “from any civil liability for serious side effects arising from the use of the vaccine, indefinitely”. Not only that, and this is shocking, these countries should “put up sovereign assets as collateral to guarantee indemnity”. Such assets could include embassy buildings, cultural assets, etc. While people were starving because of loss of jobs and means of livelihood, the corporate sector made huge profits.
It is a matter of anguish that the polity around the world has learnt little lesson from these events. Instead of serious introspection to divert wasteful expenditure from arms race to health needs, the expenditure on arms race continues to rise unabated. We need huge funds to plan future health of the planet. We have to meticulously design strategies to manage the communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Peace movement is faced with challenging tasks to save and promote health of the mankind. There is urgent need to build and strengthen the narrative for peace and disarmament. With the efforts of ICAN and scientific knowledge on the consequences on nuclear war by the IPPNW have been able get the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) passed in the UN General Assembly on 7th July 2017. The treaty has already entered into force with the ratification by required number of countries.
Now is the time to convince the countries possessing Nuclear Weapons to join the treaty. In democratic societies the voice of the people matters. There is need for intense lobbying with the decision makers. We have to build public opinion for disarmament through the promotion of mutual dialogue and trust between nations. As an immediate task tireless efforts have to be made to stop Russia Ukraine War. Any delay in ending this war could lead to catastrophic happenings. We cannot let military industrial complex to take the world for granted and make huge profits at the cost of people’s lives. (IPA )
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