US and Russia extend their nuclear weapons treaty 1:16
(CNN) ––
Five of the world's major nuclear powers pledged on Monday to work together to avoid nuclear war and achieve "a world without atomic weapons," in an unusual declaration of unity as tensions grow between East and West .
"A nuclear war cannot be won and should never be fought," says the joint statement, which was issued simultaneously by the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.
"Because nuclear use would have far-reaching consequences, we also affirm that nuclear weapons - as long as they exist - must serve defensive purposes, deter aggression and prevent war," the statement added.
Satellite images appear to show that China is making significant progress in potentially launching nuclear weapons.
The declaration also underscores the importance of preventing conflict between nuclear-weapon states from escalating, describing it as a "primary responsibility."
The declaration comes as tensions between world powers have reached levels never seen in recent decades.
In Europe, Russia is accumulating troops along its border with Ukraine, which has set off alarms in Washington, London and Paris.
And in Asia, China's surge in military activity around the self-governing island of Taiwan has triggered tensions between Beijing and Washington and their Pacific allies.
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The declaration issued by the five powers, also known as the P5, being permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, calls on all states to create a security environment "more conducive to advancing disarmament with the ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons with intact security for all. "
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The five powers pledged to adhere to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970, which requires "seeking good faith negotiations on effective measures related to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date. and nuclear disarmament ".
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Monday that the five-nation declaration was initiated by Moscow, with the intention that it be published in coordination with a review of the NPT that was due to begin Tuesday in New York but that it has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.
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"Given the importance and self-sufficiency of this joint declaration, the nuclear powers decided not to delay its publication," Zakharova said, according to the official TASS news agency.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS that the statement "was negotiated through diplomatic channels" and "broadly reflects the positions of the parties and leaders."
Part of the declaration's text, including the commitment to work for a world free of nuclear weapons, echoes a statement issued by the five nations following a conference in December in Paris that laid the groundwork for the revision of the treaty, which has been delayed since.
And the declaration that a nuclear war cannot be won was identical to the language that US and Russian presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, respectively, used after their June summit in Switzerland.
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It was also the same language used by then-US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev after their 1985 summit in Geneva.
Russia is believed to have the world's largest arsenal of nuclear warheads, with 6,255, closely followed by the United States, with 5,550, according to the Arms Control Association (ACA).
China (350), France (290) and the United Kingdom (225) round out the top five.
Pakistan (165), India (156), Israel (90) and North Korea (40-50) also have nuclear weapons, according to the ACA, but they are not part of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The director general of the Arms Control Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Fu Cong, said that Beijing remains committed to a policy of no first use and deterrence, despite modernizing its nuclear capabilities.
"Nuclear weapons are the ultimate deterrent. They are not for fighting war. To say that you cannot win a nuclear war and that you should never fight it shows that this is an understanding shared by all members of the P5. So it is important Let's keep this in mind as we talk about the tension, "Fu said when asked about the tensions over Taiwan.
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"This applies everywhere and it applies to our bad relations with the US. This is something that we hope can reduce the tension, and that would help clear up certain misunderstandings," he added.
In November 2021, the Pentagon warned that China was rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal, and that it could have 1,000 nuclear warheads by the end of the decade.
The calculation, based on the rapid modernization of China's nuclear attack options and its construction of missile silos, implied a drastic increase from the latest 2020 projection, which estimated that China would double its arsenal of 200 nuclear warheads by one decade.
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That same month, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a nonpartisan national security research and advocacy organization, found that China had made significant progress in the fields of suspicious silos - which in they may ultimately be capable of launching long-range nuclear missiles–– in the western part of the country.
"For China, this is an unprecedented nuclear build-up," wrote the authors of the FAS report.
For its part, the United States maintains a policy of "calculated ambiguity" regarding the use of nuclear weapons, according to an October 2021 report from the Congressional Research Service.
"The United States has pledged to refrain from using nuclear weapons against most non-nuclear states, but has not ruled out their first use in all cases or specified the circumstances in which it would use them," the report says.
Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), said the words of the five countries do not correspond to their actions.
"They write this 'nice' statement but do the exact opposite in reality. They are in a nuclear arms race, expanding their nuclear arsenals, spending billions on their modernization and constantly preparing to start a nuclear war," Fihn said in a statement. posted on social media.
With information from Betsy Klein and Reuters.
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