US President Donald Trump insists that China should be involved in the talks on New START, the treaty that caps US and Russian nuclear warheads, because he says up until now Beijing has had a free pass to do as it likes in developing its weapon systems.
The drop in recent years can mainly be attributed to the US and Russia, whose combined arsenals still make up more than 90% of the world's nuclear weapons.
In Vietnam this week, the second meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended without a deal on sanctions relief North Korea would get in exchange for steps to give up its nuclear programme.
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty required the elimination of short-range and intermediate-range nuclear and conventional missiles by both countries.
Despite making limited reductions to their nuclear forces, both Russia and the US have long-term programmes underway to replace and modernise their nuclear warheads.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran had lied about not pursuing nuclear weapons and had continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons knowledge after signing a 2015 deal with global powers.
Speaking weeks before an election he is expected to win, Putin also said that a nuclear attack on any of Moscow’s allies would be regarded as an attack on Russia itself and draw an immediate response.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said taboos on nuclear tests and chemical weapons usage were under threat, while talk of tactical nuclear weapons was leading in an extremely dangerous direction.
Under a contract signed on Thursday, 10 of the modernised TU-160M nuclear bombers will be delivered to the Russian Air Force at a cost of 15 billion roubles each.
There is a sense of déjà vu among nuclear pessimists that nuclear developments in China, India, and Pakistan could produce similar outcomes.
Israel is widely assumed to have nuclear weapons, although it neither confirms nor denies it.
South Korea and the US agreed on Friday to keep working for a peaceful end to the North Korean nuclear crisis, but a US envoy said it was difficult to gauge the reclusive North’s intentions as there has been 'no signal'.
North Korean senior official said the United States would “have to put up” with North Korea’s nuclear status,
North Korea may have more than triple the number of nuclear weapons that experts recently estimated, according to a story by The Washington Post.
The analysis by a US think tank was based on satellite images of the radiochemical laboratory at the Yongbyon nuclear plant from September until the end of June.
The resolution was adopted by a UN committee responsible for disarmament and international security.
China will not allow India to join the NSG as it has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Those who complain that the news is depressing have a valid point. But it could get exponentially worse.
