This screen grab from a video released by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV shows the launch ceremony of the Fujian aircraft carrier at a shipyard in Shanghai on June 17. (Photo: CCTV/AFP)
The idea of a nuclear-free world has assumed more importance in recent months with Russia, which possesses the largest number of nuclear warheads, at loggerheads with the US, the largest spender on nuclear weapons.
The risk of nuclear escalation has reached its highest boiling point in Asia, home to five out of nine declared nuclear powers, which the Asian Church cannot afford to ignore anymore.
There are two huge reasons for the Church in Asia to stick its neck out on the issue. First, nuclear arms are developed, procured and stored while the basic need of millions of poor for food, water and shelter are ignored. Two, Pope Francis has been making fervent calls for a nuclear-free world. How long can the Church in Asia ignore the pope?
In homilies and encyclicals, Pope Francis has tirelessly championed the cause of a world free of nuclear arms and has termed their use and possession a grave sin and a terrible threat to the planet.
In a message last week, he asserted that the Holy See has no doubts that “a world free from nuclear weapons is both necessary and possible.”
The Catholic hierarchy in Asia has conveniently skipped the threat of a nuclear arms race in Asia, with the exception of Japan. Maybe bishops in other Asian nations can learn a few tips from Japan, where bishops are making open calls for a world free of nuclear weapons.
The ongoing conflict in Eastern Europe is feeding in dangerous ways the rush by nuclear-armed Asian nations — China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea — to upgrade their arsenals
It is time Asian bishops stood together to face down this evil as the current nuclear spending spree is taking place at a bad time.
The ongoing conflict in Eastern Europe is feeding in dangerous ways the rush by nuclear-armed Asian nations — China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea — to upgrade their arsenals.
Moscow and Washington alone account for 90 percent of the nuclear weapons in the world, with Russia leading the pack with 5,977 warheads, slightly ahead of the US total of 5,428. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made reference to the use of nuclear arms on several occasions since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
However, the US was by far the biggest spender on nuclear arms in 2021 with $44.2 billion — four times more than the next in line, China, which shelled out $11.7 billion while Russia occupies the third slot with $8.6 billion, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) said in its report published June 14.
Citing the Russia-Ukraine war, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel are modernizing their arsenals, the Stockholm-based International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report released June 13.
Satellite images showed China is on a nuclear arms expansion spree which includes the construction of over 300 new missile silos, SIPRI said.
China’s immediate neighbor and all-weather ally Pakistan has followed suit by expanding its nuclear arsenal, SIPRI observed.
Meanwhile, India’s nuclear stockpile rose from 156 in January 2021 to 160 in January 2022 and that of Pakistan remained at 165 in January 2022, the research institute said.
With Iran ready to jump on the nuclear bandwagon anytime, volatile West Asia has been under increased threat of a nuclear Armageddon involving two sworn rivals — Iran and Israel
India, Pakistan and China often need the external influence of the US and Russia to patch up whenever a dispute occurs. Among them, they have fought four wars.
Kim Jong-un's communist regime possesses 20 nuclear warheads and has enough material to churn out at least 50, according to SIPRI.
The North Korean nuclear plan has become justification for its immediate neighbors South Korea and Japan to seek nuclear assistance from the US, their traditional mentor. South Korea has made some progress with the US in hosting nuclear arms on its soil.
Though Israel is the only one of the five Asian nations that does not acknowledge having nuclear weapons, it is arming up, citing the proposed nuclear program by Iran as the reason. Israel spent a little over $1 billion on its arsenal in 2021, ICAN said.
With Iran ready to jump on the nuclear bandwagon anytime, volatile West Asia has been under increased threat of a nuclear Armageddon involving two sworn rivals — Iran and Israel.
Citing the Ukraine war, other nuclear-armed nations are sprucing up their armories, too. Britain, which no longer publicly discloses figures for its active nuclear weapons, has announced adding more nuclear weapons to its arsenal, while France has started a program to develop nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines.
The powerful nine — the US, UK, Israel, Russia, France, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea — possess 12,705 nuclear weapons, which is going to increase in the next decade, warned SIPRI.
With tensions between China, which is modernizing its nuclear arsenal at a rapid pace, and the US-led West on the rise, the current mantra among Asian nuclear powers is to brush up their armories
Together they spent a total of $82.4 billion on upgrading and maintaining their nuclear weapons, which is a 9 percent increase from the year before, according to the latest ICAN report.
The US administration, headed by Catholic President Joe Biden, is taking part in the Ukraine conflict as it has already coughed up $5.3 billion in military assistance to Ukraine to withstand the aggression by Russia, against which the US has imposed a broad array of financial sanctions, including removing it from SWIFT, the world’s trading platform.
Nearly $4.6 billion of US military aid in the form of artillery pieces, multiple-launch rocket systems, drones, helicopters, anti-armor and anti-air missiles has been dispensed since Feb. 24, the day Russia invaded its neighbor.
The influential Washington Post has said the US military aid “has come to symbolize US involvement in Ukraine.”
With Russia’s neighbors Sweden and Finland jumping the ship and willing to join the military alliance of NATO last month, signs of a mini Third World War loom large, leaving nuclear powers to ask for more lethal firepower.
With tensions between China, which is modernizing its nuclear arsenal at a rapid pace, and the US-led West on the rise, the current mantra among Asian nuclear powers is to brush up their armories.
Though overall Asians are financially better off than they used to be, the nuclear arms race has made the most populous continent insecure. The evil is spreading. History will hold the Church in Asia responsible for its abetment of evil with its silence.
* The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.
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