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Nations to Spend $1 Trillion on Nukes, Group Says
The planet’s nine nuclear weapons states are anticipated in the next 10 years to expend $1 trillion on acquiring and updating their systems, a prominent nuclear disarmament organization said (see GSN, June 7).
The group Global Zero — whose goal is total nuclear disarmament no later than 2030 — calculated the nuclear weapons expenditure figures for China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, the Financial Times reported. The organization is seeking to bring attention to the high price countries pay for their nuclear arsenals in a time of increasing government budget restraints.
Nuclear costs among the nine nations this year are estimated at $100 billion, with similar annual numbers anticipated throughout the decade, according to Global Zero.
The organization determined that nuclear arsenal expenditures take up roughly 9 percent of the countries’ total military spending; that percentage is anticipated to increase as traditional defense programs are curtailed in a number of the nations. Nuclear weapons spending encompasses research, development, weapons assessments and acquisitions.
“Spending will increase because of decisions by both nations to upgrade and replace,” Global Zero founder Bruce Blair said. “Modernization is progressing at such a pace we are seeing more spending on nuclear weapons than at any time since the Cold War.”
The group is to convene a two-day forum in London this week with participants including Russian Federation Council international affairs committee Chairman Mikhail Margelov, ex-Indian defense chief Jaswant Singh, ex-CIA intelligence agent Valerie Plame and multiple senior Chinese officials.
Global Zero wants to see other nuclear nations besides the United States and Russia take part in formal discussions on nuclear arms control.
The two former Cold War rivals together hold 95 percent of the planet’s nuclear weapons. They recently implemented a bilateral treaty that requires both sides to reduce their deployed stockpiles of strategic warheads to 1,550. U.S. President Obama has said he would like to see negotiations with Moscow for a treaty on tactical weapons begin in 2012 (see GSN, June 2; James Blitz, Financial Times, June 19).
India Test-Fires Nuke Capable Ballistic Missile
(RTTNews) – India on Thursday successfully test-fired a nuclear capable ballistic missile from a test range in the country’s eastern state of Orissa as part of the user’s trial by the Indian Army.
“The indigenously developed missile mounted on a mobile launcher was test-fired from the launch complex-3 in the Integrated Test Range at around 0905 hours and the trial was fully successful,” the Press Trust of India news agency reported quoting defense sources. Earlier also, the Prithvi-II missile had Read more…
China aircraft carrier confirmed by general
The 300m (990ft) carrier, under construction in Dalian, is thought to be nearly finishedThe head of China’s General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has confirmed that China’s first aircraft carrier is under construction.
Gen Chen Bingde refused to say when the carrier – a remodelled Soviet-era vessel, the Varyag – would be ready.
A member of his staff said the carrier would pose no threat to other nations.
The 300m (990ft) carrier, which is being built in the north-east port of Dalian, has been one of China’s worst-kept secrets, analysts say.
Gen Chen made his comments to the Chinese-language Hong Kong Commercial Daily newspaper.
The PLA – the largest army in the world – is hugely secretive about its defence programme.
The carrier was constructed in the 1980s for the Soviet navy but was Read more…
India approves $4bn Boeing military deal
Photo: Reuters
A Boeing C-17 transport aircraft, known as the Globemaster, shown here at the Papa Air Base in Papa, Hungary, July 27, 2009.
NEW DELHI — India on Monday cleared a more than $4.0-billion deal to buy military transport planes from Boeing in the biggest ever defence deal between New Delhi and an American firm, officials said.
The agreement for the C-17 Globemaster III planes, used for transporting heavy equipment, was cleared at a meeting of the government’s cabinet committee on security affairs, a senior government official said.
The Indian defence ministry declined to comment but the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the cabinet gave its clearance to buy 10 C-17 aircraft.
He said the procurement would be done as Read more…
India Worried About Pakistani Nuke Arsenal Defenses
India’s defense chief on Wednesday voiced worries about the defenses of nuclear weapons in rival Pakistan following a militant siege this week of a naval base in Karachi, Reuters reported (see GSN, May 24).
“Naturally it is a concern not only for us but for everybody,” Defense Minister A.K. Antony said on the question of whether the assault by a minimum of six Pakistani Taliban fighters on the Mehran Naval Station had raised doubts about the security of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal, the Press Trust of India reported.
“Our services are taking all precautions and are ready round-the-clock. But at the same time we don’t want to overreact,” Antony said.
Though estimates vary, recent analyses indicate Islamabad could hold more than 110 nuclear weapons. The country’s is viewed as having the world’s fastest growing nuclear arsenal.
Some defense authorities have said the Sunday siege could have involved insiders at the base, renewing worries about Pakistani military personnel who might have extremist affinities (see GSN, Jan. 11; Reuters, May 25).
Separately, not long before he became Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari in 2008 told U.S. envoys he supported providing U.N. investigators access to nuclear scientist and proliferator Abdul Qadeer Khan, Asian News International reported on Wednesday (see GSN, May 25).
The United States has long pressed for access to Khan, Pakistan’s former top nuclear weapons scientist who in 2004 confessed to exporting nuclear technology and information to Iran, Libya and Read more…
Chinese Citizens Turn to Gold in One of Greatest Booms in Metal’s History
China aims to surpass US in physical gold reserves
The solid demand for gold is not supported just by private individuals and panicky investors, but countries like China, India and Russia are ramping up investment in the yellow metal.
“… that the world’s biggest and fastest growing national economies are in the midst of an historic push to build up their stores of the precious metal,” according to Wealth Daily’s Luke Burgess.
“Today, the biggest buyers of gold aren’t private citizens or hedge-funds. Instead, nations like China, India, and Russia have moved forward to grab up every loose ounce of the metal…,” Burgess says.
There have been reports that the Chinese are buying gold assets to cover against rising inflation risk and global macroeconomic uncertainties. Beijing has long complained that the U.S. Federal Read more…
China Prepares To Launch Gold ETFs As Utah Becomes First State To Make Gold And Silver Legal Tender
Following Friday’s news that China has now surpassed India as the world’s largest buyer of gold, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the country is trying to capitalize on the popular interest in the precious metal by transferring the trading infrastructure away from US to domestic capital markets. First, it recently launched a 1 kilo gold futures contract on the HK Merc in an obvious attempt to undermine the Comex monopoly in the space, and next it seems that China has the GLD plain in its sights, as it plans to start exchange-traded funds, tapping rising demand in China, the world’s biggest investment market for the precious metal. Often blamed for the recent volatility in the price of gold, precious metal ETFs have been primarily an instrument available to those with access to the US market. That appears to be ending, and with an entire nation suffering from gold fever (as inflation continues to be goalseeked by the China politburo above expectations in what appears to be a programmed attempt by the Chinese central planners to push its population into gold hoarding) and about to be offered a simple way of investing in (paper) gold, it is likely that the price of gold (and soon thereafter all other commodities) will see unprecedented spikes in price in either direction as millions more are given direct exposure to trading the non-dilutable currency equivalent.
From Bloomberg:
“There are some complexities, as the central bank is in charge of gold management, while we still need to go through the procedures for launching new exchange products,” Wang Zhe, chairman of the bourse, said at a Shanghai forum. There is no timetable and the exchange is working with regulators on the plan, Wang said. China is the world’s largest gold producer and second-largest in overall consumption.
China doesn’t have gold ETFs and investors usually choose to buy physical gold, or invest through contracts traded on the Shanghai Gold Exchange, the Read more…
Beijing Agrees to Operate a Key Port, Pakistan Says
BEIJING—Pakistan’s defense minister said China has agreed to take over operation of the strategically positioned but underused port of Gwadar, and that Islamabad would like the Chinese to build a base there for the Pakistani navy.
Ahmad Mukhtar gave no clear timetable on the possible change at Gwadar, on Pakistan’s western coast, which is currently managed by a Singaporean government company. But his statement Saturday is the latest illustration of how Pakistan is portraying China as a powerful alternative ally and aid source if the U.S. scales down military assistance for Islamabad in the aftermath of Osama bin Laden’s killing.
China is eager to expand its influence in Pakistan over the long term, but is wary of the country’s chronic instability, which was highlighted late Sunday when a Pakistani naval base was attacked in the western port of Karachi, about 300 miles southeast of Gwadar.
Mr. Mukhtar made the announcement after accompanying Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on a visit to China last week. During that visit, Pakistani officials say, Beijing agreed to expedite delivery of a second batch of 50 jointly developed JF-17 fighter jets to Pakistan, possibly within six months.
The fighter agreement prompted India’s defense minister, A.K. Antony, to express serious concern in a meeting with reporters late Friday about the growing defense ties between China and Pakistan, and to assert that India’s only possible response was to build up its own military arsenal.
Attempts on Sunday to contact Mr. Antony and other Indian officials for comment about Gwadar were unsuccessful. In the past, Indian officials have expressed concern Read more…
China to expedite delivery of 50 fighter jets to Pakistan: WSJ
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani (L) speaks to China’s Premier Wen Jiabao after a singing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, May 18, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee
Pakistan’s already strained ties with its ally and major donor were battered after U.S. forces on May 2 killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a garrison town near Islamabad.
The fact that bin Laden was found in Abbottabad, and had been living there for years, has prompted many in Washington to call for a review of the billions of U.S. civilian and military aid that Read more…
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