China strongly condemns NATO’s “nuclear blackmail”

China has accused NATO of “nuclear blackmail” after the organization’s secretary-general said member states were in talks to increase their nuclear missile arsenals to counter potential threats from Russia and China.

“We urge NATO to stop spreading false information, stop nuclear blackmail and coercion, and not go any further down the wrong path,” Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian told reporters on Thursday.

In an interview Telegraph In a statement earlier this month, outgoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said discussions were continuing about keeping nuclear warheads on standby, but declined to say how many.

The 65-year-old also called for greater transparency about NATO’s nuclear capabilities and exercises, adding: “As long as nuclear weapons exist, we will remain a nuclear alliance, because a world in which Russia, China and North Korea have nuclear weapons and NATO does not is a more dangerous world.”

Wu said NATO has “exaggerated the ‘China nuclear threat,'” adding that in recent years, NATO has continuously strengthened the role of nuclear weapons in its collective security policy, strengthened “nuclear weapons sharing” arrangements, and upgraded and modernized U.S.-deployed nuclear arsenals. [other] “NATO countries” added that they were “increasing the risks of a nuclear arms race and conflict.”

Newsweek NATO and the US Department of Defense have been contacted in writing for comment.

In a statement issued after the 2021 NATO summit in Brussels, NATO reaffirmed the importance of nuclear deterrence in its strategy.

Of NATO’s 32 member states, three are nuclear powers – the United States, Britain and France – but only the first two have committed to using nuclear weapons in defense of NATO allies.

Turkey, Italy, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands all hold U.S. nuclear weapons under NATO nuclear arms-sharing agreements, and for the first time since 2008, the United States is preparing to station nuclear weapons in the United Kingdom as well.

In Telegraph In the interview, Stoltenberg also warned about China’s heavy investments in modern weapons and its nuclear arsenal, which he said was on track to reach 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.

China is thought to have about 500 nuclear weapons, while the United States and Russia each have more than 5,000. China also has several nuclear-capable missiles with the range to strike the U.S. mainland if launched from China’s east coast or from submarines.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute wrote in a report this month that it believes China has deployed several nuclear warheads, the first such country in East Asia to do so.