UK to increase nuclear arsenal by 40% and name Russia and China as top threats

The British government decided to expand its arsenal of nuclear weapons for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991., according to its first post-Brexit strategic review which places Russia, and in a lesser extent China, like threats.

The UK will increase the maximum cap on its nuclear warhead arsenal from 180 to 260, what increase of almost 45%, according to the review published Tuesday and which will be presented by Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson to parliament later today.

According to British media, the findings of the country’s defense, security and foreign policy report will determine the government’s line for the next decade, the executive will invoke a “A growing panoply of technological and doctrinal threats” to justify this change, unprecedented since the end of the Cold War.

“As circumstances and threats change over time, we must maintain a credible and minimal level of deterrence,” justified the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dominic raab, in statements on the radio BBC. “This is the ultimate guarantee, the ultimate insurance policy against the worst threats from hostile states “he added.

After you have completed your departure from the European Union, with the end of the transition period on January 1, the UK seeks to position itself as a key power on the international stage, according to a concept invented as “Global Britain”.

RUSSIA AND CHINA

Thus, the report cited by the press warns against “Realistic chance” that a terrorist group “succeeds in launching a CBRN attack [químico, biológico, radiológico o nuclear) de aquí a 2030” pero también de los retos que representan respectivamente Rusia y China.

Sin embargo, según el diario The Guardian, el texto presenta el Kremlin de Vladimir Putin más como una “amenaza activa” que el régimen de Beijing, con quien Londres mantiene relaciones diplomáticas cada vez más tensas pero desea estrechar lazos comerciales y define aquí como “desafío sistémico”.

La noticia de un aumento del arsenal nuclear indignó a la ICAN (Campaña Internacional para la Abolición de Armas Nucleares), para quien “viola los compromisos que (Londres) ha adoptado en el marco del tratado de no proliferación nuclear”.

“La decisión del Reino Unido de aumentar su reservas de armas de destrucción masiva en plena pandemia es irresponsable, peligrosa y viola el derecho internacional”, denunció Beatrice Fihn, directora de esta oenegé.

El grupo Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) ve en esta iniciativa un “primer paso hacia una nueva carrera armamentista nuclear” y la tachó de “enorme provocación en el escenario mundial”.

“Mientras el mundo se debate con la pandemia y el caos climático, es increíble que nuestro gobierno elija aumentar el arsenal nuclear británico”, subrayó su secretaria general Kate Hudson, para quien “atizar las tensiones mundiales y malgastar recursos es un enfoque irresponsable y potencialmente desastroso”.

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