The five major nuclear-weapon states this week released a new statement about the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the bedrock international accord that promotes the peaceful use of nuclear technology and a philosophy of defensive use of nuclear weapons.
“We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. As nuclear use would have far-reaching consequences, we also affirm that nuclear weapons — for as long as they continue to exist — should serve defensive purposes, deter aggression, and prevent war,” the statement reads. “We believe strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented.”
The so-called P5 countries are the People’s Republic of China, the French Republic, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the U.S. The U.S. and Russia have most of the nuclear weapons, by warhead count, of all five countries.
The statement arrived with the Joe Biden administration at work on its nuclear posture review, which some proponents of nuclear modernization fear could cut the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Advocates of stricter arms control, meanwhile, fear the posture review will do little or nothing to change the 30-year modernization regimen set in place by the Barack Obama administration and essentially maintained by the Donald Trump administration, with minor alterations — Trump added a low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and postponed the retirement of the megaton-capable B83 gravity bomb.
