(RightWing.org) – One of the reasons Russia invaded Ukraine back in February 2022 is because it wanted to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wouldn’t offer his reassurances that his country wouldn’t try to join the alliance and there were rumblings that NATO was trying to expand its reach. Now, as the war has entered its third year and Russia has continued to escalate, the alliance head has begun discussing the possibility of shoring up nuclear power.
NATO to Put Nuclear Weapons on Standby?
On Monday, June 17, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke with Britain’s Telegraph newspaper and noted that the alliance was considering taking more of its nuclear weapons out of storage and placing them on standby, echoing what the US is considering. The point is to be transparent while also hoping to deter adversaries from starting a nuclear war.
During the discussion, Stoltenberg said he wouldn’t “go into operational details” about the number of warheads it would keep in storage versus moving out, but said the alliance “need[s] to consult on these issues.”
“A World Without Nuclear Weapons”
While the reality is that several countries have developed and stockpiled nuclear weapons, Stoltenberg said the alliance aims to have “a world without” them. However, since they do exist, especially in Russia and China, two countries with the potential to be superpowers and that have threatened to use the weapons if necessary, it’s become “a more dangerous world.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that he’s not afraid to use nuclear weapons if the situation calls for it, but has walked back those statements several times. China seems poised to try to take on Taiwan, to bring it back under its one-China umbrella, and the US is likely to get involved if it does. Then, there’s North Korea, where Kim Jong-un is regularly firing missiles in an attempt to make it known he has firepower behind him and will not hesitate to act should the situation require.
As reported earlier this week, Russia and North Korea have also signed a new defense treaty that could prove problematic. The pact agrees that if one side should be attacked, the other will come to its defense. There’s also speculation that the new agreement also involves the sale of weapons between the two nations. Russia has been isolated from the West due to sanctions after it invaded Ukraine and has sought alternate avenues to build up its stockpiles.
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