NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has stated that the alliance is discussing the possibility of removing some nuclear missiles from storage and putting them on alert due to the growing threats from Russia and China. He made this statement in an interview with The Telegraph.
Stoltenberg said he will not go into operational details about how many nuclear warheads should be brought to readiness and how many need to be kept in reserve. However, he said there needs to be consultation on these issues.
In his view, the alliance needs to send a “clear signal” to its adversaries through its nuclear arsenal.
He noted that NATO’s goal is “a world without nuclear weapons, but as long as they exist, NATO “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. Stoltenberg stated that China is investing heavily in modern weapons, including a nuclear arsenal, which he said will grow to a thousand warheads by 2030.
This means that in the not-too-distant future, NATO could face something it has never faced before, namely two potential nuclear adversaries – China and Russia. Of course, this has consequences, the alliance’s secretary general said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum and commenting on the war in Ukraine, reminded that Russia’s nuclear doctrine states that the use of nuclear weapons is possible in the event of a threat to the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. In his opinion, such a moment has “not yet arrived.” At the same time, he allowed for changes to this doctrine. A few days later, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated that Russia could change its basic documents in the field of nuclear deterrence due to the “unacceptable and escalatory” actions of the West.
On June 17, SIPRI issued a release stating that the “number and types” of nuclear weapons in development have increased as countries deepen their reliance on nuclear deterrence. Of the estimated 12,121 warheads in the global inventory as of January 2024, approximately 9585 were in military stockpiles for potential use. An estimated 3904 of those warheads were deployed with missiles and aircraft, 60 more than in January 2023. The remaining warheads were in central storage. Approximately 2100 of the deployed warheads, mostly from the US and Russia, were maintained in a state of high operational alert on ballistic missiles. For the first time, China is believed to have some warheads on high operational alert.
