It’s Time to Talk About No First Use
Tong Zhao | Foreign Policy
Beijing maintains that the policy of no first use of nuclear weapons (NFU), which China has long endorsed, should be the foremost topic for any discussion on nuclear weapons. In August, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs doubled down on this insistence. However, such a prerequisite would mark a significant divergence from U.S. declaratory policy and has thus been a nonstarter for Washington. But the United States’ assumption that discussing nuclear issues with China requires it to be open to adopting a categorical NFU policy is mistaken. There is indeed an opening to start dialogue with China on substantive and mutually beneficial issues, all without requiring Washington to commit to significantly altering its existing nuclear policy.
US, China Held Nuclear Arms Talks Before Xi-Biden Meeting
Alan Wong | Bloomberg
The US and China had a rare meeting regarding nuclear arms control as Washington urges Beijing to disclose more information about its growing nuclear capabilities. Officials from the two nuclear powers on Monday took part in a “candid and in-depth” discussion about arms control and nonproliferation, the State Department said in a statement on Tuesday. The US emphasized the importance of greater transparency on the Chinese side and more communication on steps to reduce strategic risks including those in outer space, according to the statement.
Kremlin Says Nuclear Arms Dialogue with US is Necessary but not Ready to be Lectured
Guy Faulconbridge | Reuters
When asked about the prospect of strategic dialogue on nuclear weapons with the United States and the West, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said:.."Dialogue is unequivocally necessary. (But) it cannot take place in a situation where one country lectures another country. We do not accept such a situation. "But we believe that dialogue is essential. And we are certainly ready to start it. But so far the actual situation has not changed in any way."
Pacific Islands Forum Chair Says Region Must Revisit its Anti-nuclear Treaty
Daniel Hurst | The Guardian
The host of this week’s Pacific Islands Forum summit says the region must “revisit” a landmark anti-nuclear treaty, citing Australia’s Aukus submarine deal and Japan’s discharge of treated Fukushima wastewater. Mark Brown, the prime minister of the Cook Islands and chair of the region’s most important annual political talks, raised concerns about nuclear-related issues on the eve of the arrival of the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
The Air Force Asks Congress to Protect its Nuclear Launch Sites from Encroaching Wind Turbines
TARA COPP | Associated Press
The Air Force’s vast fields of underground nuclear missile silos are rarely disturbed by more than the occasional wandering cow or floating spy balloon. But the service is now asking Congress to help with another unexpected danger: towering wind turbines, which are growing in number and size and are edging closer to the sites each year. The silos share space on vast private farmlands with the turbines. Whereas the nuclear launch sites are almost undetectable — just small, rectangular plots of land marked only by antennae, a chain-link fence and a flat 110,000-ton (100,000-metric tonne) concrete silo blast door — the turbines are hundreds of feet high, with long, sweeping blades that have parts so large and long they dwarf the 18-wheeler flatbed trucks that transport them to new sites.
Nuclear Weapons Sharing, 2023
Hans M. Kristensen, Matt Korda, Eliana Johns, and Mackenzie Knight | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Collectively, the world’s estimated 12,512 nuclear warheads belong to just nine countries. However, there are more than two dozen additional countries that participate in nuclear mission-related arrangements. While these countries do not have direct launch authority over any nuclear warheads, they play an important role in their storage, planning, delivery, and safety and use-control, and therefore merit a degree of scrutiny alongside their nuclear-armed peers.