US President Donald Trump announced his plans to expand the country’s nuclear arsenal.
US President Donald Trump (Photo: AP / John Locher)
In an interview with the Reuters news agency, US President Donald Trump said that he intends to expand the country’s nuclear arsenal in order to show the leadership position of the US. In addition, Trump is dissatisfied with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) on the limitation of missile weapons, signed with Russia.
The US President said that the US fell behind on nuclear weapon capacity, and its growth would regain the leading position of the country.
“And I am the first one that would like to see … nobody have nukes, but we’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a friendly country, we’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power,” Trump told Reuters. “It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack.”
The news agency reminded that now the number of nuclear warheads in the US and Russia is restricted by the START-3. The agreement stipulates reduction of nuclear warheads to 1,550 pieces, intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers – to 700 pieces. In the interview, Trump called the agreement is “just another bad deal that the country made, whether it’s START, whether it’s the Iran deal, which is one of the bad deals ever made.”
“So we’re going to start making good deals,” the US President said.
In addition, the White House’s head said that he is dissatisfied with the Moscow’s alleged deployment of cruise missiles that allegedly runs counter to the INF Treaty. The US has been talking about violations of the agreement by Russia during several years. According to Reuters, Trump intends to discuss this issue at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the terms of which still have not been determined.
In the same interview, Trump said that China could “easily” eliminate the security threat from North Korea, if it wanted to.
On February 15, the New York Times newspaper reported, citing sources in the US administration, that Russian military had deployed a fully operational unit of land-based cruise missiles of the ground-to-ground class that, according to the US, violates the INF Treaty. At that time, press secretary of the Russian President, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russia remains committed to its international obligations, including the INF Treaty.
For starters, Russia ought not to worry too much with regards to a growing US nuclear arsenal. There is more than one way to skin a cat. Russia’s current nuclear arsenal and various delivery systems, are sufficient to deliver a second or retaliatory strike. Personally, I think its all bluff and bluster for the American audience, than trying to scare Russia.
This doesn’t matter to Russia, they cannot hope to counter US ballistic technology directly anyway.