NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that alliance members are negotiating the deployment of more nuclear weapons in the face of growing threats from Russia and China, according to his interview with The Telegraph.
Stoltenberg added that the bloc must show the world its nuclear arsenal to send a direct message to its enemies.
He mentioned that there have been active consultations among members about taking missiles out of storage and putting them on standby, and he called for the use of transparency as a means of deterrence.
"I will not go into operational details about how many nuclear warheads should be in working condition and which should be stored, but we need to consult on these issues. That is exactly what we are doing," Stoltenberg said.
According to him, nuclear transparency should be a cornerstone of NATO's nuclear strategy so that the alliance is prepared for what he called a more dangerous world.
"Transparency helps to send a direct message that we are, of course, a nuclear alliance. Of course, NATO’s goal is 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," said the Secretary General.
He warned that China, in particular, is investing significantly in modern weaponry, including its nuclear arsenal, which, according to Stoltenberg, will grow to 1,000 warheads by 2030.
"And this means that in the not-too-distant future, NATO could face something it has never encountered before, which is two potential adversaries with nuclear weapons – China and Russia. Of course, this has implications," the alliance leader noted.
It should be recalled that the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) stated that the "extremely worrying" increase in the number of nuclear warheads deployed with missiles and aircraft is likely to accelerate in the coming years.
Nuclear threats from Russia Russian officials and media have regularly threatened various countries with the use of nuclear weapons since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In May, the Russian Federation conducted exercises involving the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons.
The Institute for the Study of War believes that such actions by the aggressor are intended to frighten Western politicians and force them to take actions favorable to Russia.
A communiqué following the G7 summit in June stated that Russia would face serious consequences if it dared to use nuclear or chemical weapons.
Researchers from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists have identified the number of nuclear weapons Russia possesses.
