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China Seeks to Join the Nuclear Big League

IN THIS ISSUE: China Seeks to Join the Nuclear Big League, Iran Nuclear Talks Set to Resume in Vienna at the End of November, North Korea Can Make More Uranium for Nuclear Bombs Than Previously Thought, Biden Administration Considers Adjusting Rationale for U.S. Nuclear Arsenal, U.S.-Russia Engagement Deepens as C.I.A. Head Travels to Moscow, Putin Says Russian Navy to Get Hypersonic Zircon Missiles in 2022

Published on November 4, 2021

China Seeks to Join the Nuclear Big League

The Economist

When America and the Soviet Union raced each other to build ever-larger nuclear arsenals during the cold war, China ambled disdainfully. It did not detonate its first nuclear weapon until 1964, kept only a few hundred warheads compared with the tens of thousands piled up by the superpowers, and to this day maintains it will never be the first to use nukes in a war. Now China is sprinting to catch up. In its latest annual assessment, the Pentagon says China’s stockpile of nuclear warheads, which last year it reckoned to be in the “low-200s”, could triple to about 700 by 2027 and will probably quintuple to about 1,000 or more by 2030. That is sharply higher than America’s previous forecast that the arsenal would double in size by then. Even so, it would still be smaller than America’s or Russia’s. Those countries each have about 4,000 warheads.

Iran Nuclear Talks Set to Resume in Vienna at the End of November

Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood | CNN

US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley will lead US participation in the next round of Iran nuclear talks, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Wednesday, shortly after an Iranian diplomat announced the long-delayed negotiations will restart November 29 in Vienna. Price said negotiations about the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action should pick up exactly where they left off and expressed optimism that outstanding issues could be resolved swiftly.

North Korea Can Make More Uranium for Nuclear Bombs Than Previously Thought

Timothy W. Martin | Wall Street Journal

North Korea has the capacity to make more base ingredients for nuclear bombs than previously believed, according to new research, suggesting the Kim Jong Un regime possesses the potential to accelerate the earliest stages of production. The nation’s output of uranium—a fissile material for nuclear weapons when enriched—is just a fraction of what could be produced, according to new research from Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.

Biden Administration Considers Adjusting Rationale for U.S. Nuclear Arsenal

Paul Sonne and John Hudson | Washington Post

The White House is planning meetings this month to discuss whether to declare the “sole purpose” of the U.S. nuclear arsenal is to deter or retaliate against a nuclear attack – a change in policy supported by President Biden and arms control advocates but opposed by key U.S. allies and GOP lawmakers. The meetings at the National Security Council are part of the administration’s broader effort to hammer out a new nuclear weapons policy by early next year. Any decision would be announced then, according to officials familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.

U.S.-Russia Engagement Deepens as C.I.A. Head Travels to Moscow

Anton Troianovski and Julian E. Barnes | New York Times

William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, met with a top adviser to President Vladimir V. Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, leading a delegation of American officials on a two-day visit to the Russian capital that served as the latest evidence of heightened engagement between two global adversaries. Mr. Burns was traveling at President Biden’s request, the American Embassy in Moscow said in a statement. The surprise visit was something of a merger of Mr. Burns’s current role as intelligence chief and his past jobs as a senior American diplomat and state department official.

Putin Says Russian Navy to Get Hypersonic Zircon Missiles in 2022

Reuters

Tests of Russia’s Zircon hypersonic cruise missile are nearing completion and deliveries to the navy will begin in 2022, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. The move is part of a bid by Moscow to forge ahead in a race with the United States and others to deploy the next generation of long-range weapons that are harder to detect and intercept. Russia last month said it had successfully test launched a Zircon missile from a submarine for the first time.

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