The United States may need to deploy more strategic nuclear weapons in the coming years to “deter growing threats” from Russia, China, and “other adversaries,” a White House aide stated on Friday.
Pranay Vaddi, the top arms control official at the National Security Council, made these remarks in a speech about a “more competitive approach” to arms control, which aims to pressure Moscow and Beijing to reconsider their rejection of US proposals for limiting nuclear arsenals.
“Unless there is a change in adversary arsenals, we may soon reach a point where an increase from current deployed numbers is necessary. We must be fully prepared to act if the president decides to do so,” he told the Arms Control Association.
“If that day comes, it will be because we determined that more nuclear weapons are needed to deter our adversaries and protect the American people, as well as our allies and partners.”
Currently, the US adheres to a limit of 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads as set by the 2010 New START treaty with Russia, despite Moscow “suspending” its participation last year in response to US support for Ukraine—a move Washington deems “legally invalid.”
Vaddi’s comments came a year after National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the same group that there was no need to increase US strategic nuclear arms deployments to counter Russia and China, offering talks “without preconditions” instead.
The administration remains committed to international arms control and non-proliferation efforts designed to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, Vaddi emphasized. However, he claimed that Russia, China, and North Korea “are all rapidly expanding and diversifying their nuclear arsenals.”
These three countries, along with Iran, “are increasingly cooperating and coordinating in ways that threaten peace and stability, endanger the United States, our allies, and our partners, and exacerbate regional tensions,” he said.
