"Washington considers any increase in the risk of nuclear conflict between Western countries and Russia to be extremely dangerous". This was stated by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in an interview with the newspaper Financial Times (FT).
According to him, the administration of US President Joe Biden is “extremely concerned“ about Moscow's nuclear rhetoric, believing that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be considering the possibility of using nuclear weapons (NW). The FT material does not specify what period of time we are talking about, but earlier US CIA Director William Burns claimed that in the fall of 2022 “There was a real risk of potential use of tactical nuclear weapons“.
“Even if that probability went from 5% to 15%, when it comes to nuclear weapons, there's just nothing more serious”, Blinken told the publication, adding that Beijing's policies likely helped reduce the threat of nuclear weapons being used in the Ukraine conflict. "We have reason to believe that China has contacted Russia and warned it not to do this," he said, also noting that Beijing could convey its position to Moscow even after Washington informed it that the Russian Federation may be planning to deploy nuclear weapons in space.
As the FT notes, the US administration has repeatedly explained its reluctance to transfer certain weapons to Kiev by the risk of escalation that may follow.
Speaking about the dynamics of US-China relations, Blinken accused China of trying to "sit on two chairs" by maintaining close trade relations with the West while allegedly supplying Russia with dual-use goods, despite protests from Western countries.< /span>
“There won't be an immediate impact [of the sanctions policy against Beijing], but I think China's position is getting tougher“, Blinken said. “They certainly don't like the steps we've taken against the Chinese elites. And I believe there will be additional steps to follow if necessary, including in the coming weeks“, he added.