Both India and Pakistan expanding nuclear stocks: Sipri

LAHORE: India and Pakistan, among the world’s top 10 arms importers, are currently expanding their respective nuclear arsenals, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) has noted in its December 15, 2014 report that has been published by the Oxford University Press.
This international think tank, which cooperates closely with several intergovernmental organizations like the United Nations and the European Union, has viewed that peace and security in South Asia also depends on the success of the forthcoming “transition decade” in Afghanistan, in which Pakistan can particularly play a key role.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute was ranked the fifth most influential global think tank by the University of Pennsylvania in 2013 after the Brookings Institution, Chatham House, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute report under review had surfaced after 158 countries had met in Vienna during December 2014 to highlight the humanitarian impact of any nuclear explosion and had stressed the importance of a treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons.
According to Sipri’s new data on international arms production, the sales of arms and military services by the largest arms-producing companies had totaled $402 billion in 2013, which thus meant that the total arms sales of the 100 largest arms producers and military services providers has declined for the third consecutive year.
The Sipri report maintains: “With a decrease in sales of 2 per cent in real terms compared to 3.9 per cent in 2012, the pace of the decline has slowed slightly. This is partly attributable to significant increases in arms sales by Russian companies and other emerging suppliers. Sales by companies headquartered in the United States and Canada have continued to moderately decrease, while sales by Russian-based companies increased by 20 per cent in 2013. Western Europe offered a more mixed picture, with French companies increasing their sales, sales by British companies remaining stable, and Italian and Spanish arms-producing companies’ sales continuing to decline.”The report of this Swedish institute adds: “The share of global arms sales for companies outside North America and Western Europe has been increasing since 2005.”