What's behind the US shift away from nuclear restrictions: Expert views
Photo: US President Donald Trump (Getty Images)
The United States wants to significantly increase its nuclear arsenal, as its key rival, China, is developing its own. The US does not want to join any arms limitation treaty, according to the RBC-Ukraine article World without limits: How Trump and Putin open nuclear arsenals of US and Russia.
Read also: 50-year era of nuclear control is ending — FT explains what happens next
China remains the US's key rival globally. According to estimates by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, China's nuclear arsenal currently consists of several hundred warheads, but it could grow exponentially in the coming years.
Beijing is actively building new missile silos and developing its naval nuclear forces.
Combined with Russia's, these are serious nuclear forces that pose a real threat to the US.
According to Polina Sinovets, head of the Odesa Center for Nonproliferation, Washington now faces the task of deterring both Moscow and Beijing.
“In fact, it may be necessary not to double, but to significantly increase the American nuclear arsenal, because the Chinese are developing their own and they do not want to join any arms limitation treaty,” Sinovets said.
The growing size of China's nuclear arsenal will be the main driver of nuclear weapons production among the major powers, agreed John Caves, a senior research associate at the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, in a comment to RBC-Ukraine.
At the same time, the termination of START III, in his opinion, is rather secondary.
The nuclear treaty between the US and Russia expires
Today, February 5, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (known as START III) between the United States and Russia expires. After that, there will be no binding restrictions between the world's two largest nuclear powers.
Earlier, Russian president Vladimir Putin proposed voluntarily adhering to the restrictions for another year, but without the resumption of inspections, such a proposal is rather symbolic.
For his part, US President Donald Trump said he would like a new agreement that would also include China, but Washington has not yet taken any concrete steps.
Trump ordered the Pentagon to resume nuclear tests “on equal terms” with Russia and China. Despite this, experts believe that Trump may accept Putin's proposal to adhere to the treaty restrictions for another year at the last minute.
