Had Reached 31,255 Fruits, United States Nuclear Warheads 'Live' 3,750

Illustration of the ICBM Titan II silo at the Titan Missile Museum, Arizona, United States. (Wikimedia Commons/Steve Jurvetson)

JAKARTA - For the first time the United States has disclosed the number of nuclear warheads it has, after former president Donald Trump closed the data for the past four years.

This data was revealed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday. As of September 30, 2020, the country's military has a total of 3,750 active and inactive nuclear warheads.

The total number of nuclear warheads is down by 55 from the previous year's number, and 72 from the number on the same date in 2017.

This figure is also the lowest level since the United States' nuclear stockpile peaked at the height of the Cold War with Russia in 1965, at which time the United States' total nuclear warheads reached 31,255 warheads.

The figures come amid efforts by President Joe Biden's administration to restart arms control talks with Russia after stalled under Donald Trump.

"Increasing the transparency of states' nuclear stockpiles is critical to non-proliferation and disarmament efforts," the State Department said in a statement, citing AFP's France 24.

Donald Trump, who withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal with Iran and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia, also left another landmark pact, the New Start Treaty last year before it was due to expire on February 5.

Illustration of the United States' B-61 nuclear bomb. (Wikimedia Commons/United States Department of Defense/SSGT Phil Schmitten)

New Start limits the number of nuclear warheads held by Washington and Moscow. Allowing the pact to expire could trigger a reversal of warhead reductions on both sides.

Donald Trump has said he wants a new deal that includes China, which has only a fraction of the warheads the United States and Russia have.

Meanwhile, President Biden, who took office on January 20, immediately proposed a five-year extension to New Start, which Russian President Vladimir Putin quickly agreed.

The deal limits the number of nuclear warheads to 1,550 that can be used by Moscow and Washington.

Last week, Russian and US diplomats held closed-door talks in Geneva, Switzerland, to begin discussions about the successor to New Start as well as controls on conventional weapons.

A US official called the talks "productive", with both sides saying the fact of holding talks was positive.

According to a January 2021 tally by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which includes retired warheads, not counted in State Department figures, the United States has 5,550 warheads, compared to 6,255 in Russia, 350 in China, 225 in the UK and 290 in the United States. French.

India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea together have about 460 nuclear warheads, according to the institute.