Report: Nuclear powers talk up disarmament while modernizing arsenals

The world’s nuclear-armed states have continued to expand and develop their nuclear weapon delivery systems – even as they pledge their commitment to a world without the weapons – according to an annual report released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Despite an overall decline in the number of nuclear warheads over the past few years, the world’s legally recognized nuclear weapon states, or the P-5 – the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom – have all either deployed, or announced their intention to develop, new weapons systems. So have India and Pakistan, which have developed such weapons outside of international law.

It is a trend that seems to undermine the global consensus toward nuclear disarmament as dictated under the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty, not to mention the professed desire for a disarmed world by P-5 leaders such as President Barack Obama.

Read the full article at Al Jazeera America.