Disarmament Diplomacy

Issue No. 40, September - October 1999

Report on Economic Costs of South Asia Arms Race

On September 23, the UN's annual report on Development in South Asia laid special emphasis on the detrimental socio-economic consequences of sharply increasing military spending. According to the report: "When the most basic social services are missing in both India and Pakistan, the rising defence burdens in these countries continue to impose prohibitive social and economic costs on their people. ... If the immense costs of conventional weapons and large armies are not already enough, new estimates for maintaining full-scale nuclear arsenals... are expected to run to for India and Pakistan each - at a bare minimum - $750 million a year".

Report: Nuke arms race looms for Pakistan, Associated Press, September 23.

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