NATO discusses deploying more nuclear weapons due to threat from Russia and China
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (Getty Images)
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that alliance members are negotiating the deployment of more nuclear weapons in the face of growing threats from Russia and China, according to his interview with The Telegraph.
Stoltenberg added that the bloc must show the world its nuclear arsenal to send a direct message to its enemies.
He mentioned that there have been active consultations among members about taking missiles out of storage and putting them on standby, and he called for the use of transparency as a means of deterrence.
"I won’t go into operational details about how many nuclear warheads should be operational and which should be stored, but we need to consult on these issues. That’s exactly what we’re doing," Stoltenberg said.
According to him, nuclear transparency should be a cornerstone of NATO's nuclear strategy so that the alliance is prepared for what he called a more dangerous world.
"Transparency helps to communicate the direct message that we, of course, are a nuclear alliance. NATO’s aim is, of course, a world without nuclear weapons, but as long as nuclear weapons exist, we will remain a nuclear alliance, because a world where Russia, China, and North Korea have nuclear weapons, and NATO does not, is a more dangerous world," said the Secretary-General.
He warned that China, in particular, is investing significantly in modern weaponry, including its nuclear arsenal, which, according to Stoltenberg, will grow to 1,000 warheads by 2030.
"And that means that in a not-very-distant future. Nato may face something that it has never faced before, and that is two nuclear-powered potential adversaries – China and Russia. Of course, this has consequences," the alliance leader said.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) stated that the extremely worrying increase in the number of nuclear warheads deployed with missiles and aircraft is likely to accelerate in the coming years.
Nuclear threats from Russia
Russian officials and media have regularly threatened various countries with the use of nuclear weapons since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In May, the Russian Federation conducted exercises involving the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons.
The Institute for the Study of War believes that such actions by the aggressor are intended to frighten Western politicians and force them to take actions favorable to Russia.
A communiqué following the G7 summit in June stated that Russia would face serious consequences if it dared to use nuclear or chemical weapons.
Researchers from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists have identified the number of nuclear weapons Russia possesses.
