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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says that the Alliance is involved in discussions adressing the deployment of more nuclear weapons to show Russia and China threatening the West its capabilities.
This was reported by The Telegraph.
Stolteberg tends to believe that transparency, nuclear as well, is what should be the foundation of the NATO nuclear strategy these days, though most nuclear operations and exercises used to be very discreet when he took over the organization 10 years ago.
“Transparency helps to communicate the direct message that we, of course, are a nuclear alliance. NATO’s aim is, of course, a world without nuclear weapons, but as long as nuclear weapons exist, we 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,” the NATO chief stressed.
Still, he hasn’t elaborated into too many details.
“I won’t go into operational details about how many nuclear warheads should be operational and which should be stored, but we need to consult on these issues. That’s exactly what we’re doing,” Stoltenberg informed The Telegraph.
The leader of the NATO specifically mentioned China as the major threat to the alliance, saying it could have 1,000 warheads by 2030.
Facing adversaries like Russia and China, NATO member states should do everything to modernise their nuclear deterrent.
“The US is modernising their gravity bombs for the nuclear warheads they have in Europe and European allies are modernising the planes which are going to be dedicated to NATO’s nuclear mission,” Jens Stoltenberg explained.
In general, most NATO members hadn’t been able to hit the minimum threshold of 2% expenditure as a share of their GDP for defence spending before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Now, Stoltenberg expects at least 20 states to reach the goal before the Washington summit in July.
Read also: NATO countries should spend at least 0.25% of GDP on Ukraine aid – Estonia’s defense minister
