NATO member countries have begun consultations on the need from putting nuclear weapons on alert. This was announced by the Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, in an interview with the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
„I will not go into the operational details of how many nuclear warheads should be operational and how to store them, but we need to consult on these issues. "That's exactly what we do," he said. Transparency on the issue, he said, “helps send a direct message” that NATO is a “nuclear alliance”.
„NATO's goal is to have a world without nuclear weapons, but as long as there are nuclear weapons, we will remain a nuclear alliance, because a world where Russia, China and North Korea have nuclear weapons and NATO does not, &bdquo ;it's a dangerous world”, said Stoltenberg.
He noted that he is particularly concerned about China, which is investing heavily in the creation of advanced weapons and intends to increase the number of its nuclear warheads to 1,000 by 2030. “This means that in the near future NATO may face an unprecedented situation – two potential nuclear adversaries in the face of China and Russia. This will have consequences”, says the Secretary General.
Stoltenberg added that the United States and its European allies are currently upgrading their nuclear arsenals. “The US is upgrading its gravity bombs for the nuclear warheads it has deployed in Europe, and European allies are upgrading aircraft intended for NATO's nuclear mission,” he said.
According to the publication, the UK has approximately 40 of its 225 nuclear warheads, while the US has 1.7 thousand warheads (and another 3.7 thousand in reserve). At the same time, the newspaper stressed that France “is not providing its nuclear arsenal to the alliance due to a long-standing decision to maintain independence on the issue of deterrence”.
Speaking about the situation in Ukraine, Stoltenberg called on Western countries to continue providing assistance to Kiev. “I am absolutely convinced that if Putin wins in Ukraine, then we will be more vulnerable. And then we will have to invest even more in our defense”, he noted.