The US must massively boost its nuclear capability until the “world comes to its senses,” US president-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday, hours after a similar vow by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump made the statement on Twitter, without providing details or context, a day after meeting a group of Pentagon top brass and shortly after Putin called for Russia to reinforce its own nuclear capabilities.
“The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes,” Trump tweeted.
Photo: AFP
The open talk of ramping up nuclear capabilities — reminiscent of Cold War pledges — is a departure from the stance of US President Barack Obama, who in a speech in Prague in 2009 called for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
In 2010, Obama and then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev signed the so-called New START pact that calls for a significant reduction in the nuclear arsenals of both nations.
Trump’s remark came after Putin declared: “We need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces,” while boasting about the Russian army’s performance in its Syria campaign.
Russia’s focus should be on “missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defense systems,” Putin said.
A top Trump adviser said the president-elect was not trying to change longstanding US positions on global security issues.
“What he’s saying is he wants us to be ready to defend ourselves and he’s not making new policy,” Kellyanne Conway, who on Thursday was tapped as White House counselor, said in an interview with MSNBC.
Following the reports from the US and Russia, China yesterday said that countries with the largest nuclear arsenals should take the lead in disarmament.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) told reporters at a regular briefing that Beijing is “paying close attention” to what nuclear weapons policy Trump’s administration will follow.
Hua said that China advocates a ban on and destruction of nuclear weapons.
“The countries that have the largest nuclear arsenals should bear special responsibility for nuclear disarmament, take a lead in drastically and tangibly cutting the number of nuclear weapons so as to create conditions for the eventual full and thorough nuclear disarmament,” Hua said.
China is also a nuclear power and in 1996 Beijing signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
According to the Washington-based Arms Control Association, China has an estimated 260 nuclear warheads. Russia and the US have more than 7,000 each.
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