Donald Trump said Friday he welcomes an global nuclear arms race, a comment that some experts are calling both “puzzling” and ill-informed.
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Understandably, Trump’s latest declaration has some nervous about a new arms race.
US President-elect Donald Trump said on Friday he would welcome an worldwide nuclear arms race in an interview with broadcaster MSNBC.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin vowing today to stay neck and neck with the USA, if president-elect Donald trump does seek to expand the us nuclear arsenal after taking office.
Trump, who is in Florida for the Christmas holiday, gave no further details. According to the think tank Nuclear Threat Initiative, the two countries each keep almost 2,000 nuclear weapons in a state of high alert, so that they are ready for immediate launch.
Also Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at his lengthy annual press conference that Russia’s weaponry is capable of penetrating the missile defense system of the United States.
But later, in an interview with the New York Times, he said he thinks “it’s a very scary nuclear world”. “Anyone of them being detonated inadvertently or deliberately would be catastrophic”. But his critics would say his policies would if anything raise the danger of nuclear proliferation.
“It’s no secret we’ve worked hard to improve our missile forces”, he said.
Noting this week’s attack in Berlin, Mr Putin called for better co-operation in fighting terrorism, saying such efforts between Russian Federation and the West have been effectively paralysed by Western sanctions against Russian Federation.
“They are losing on all fronts and looking for scapegoats on whom to lay the blame”, Putin said.
“These are great people”, Trump said after the meeting, according to a pool report.
Meanwhile, Canadian officials were tight lipped when it came to Trump’s comments.
The new president will, at some point, be introduced to the nuclear war plans he would have to use in the event of an emergency. “Current plans already call for spending $1 trillion over the next three decades to modernize and maintain the US nuclear arsenal, which the Pentagon has expressed concern about being able to afford”. The president-elect will make sure that other countries considering adding to their nuclear capabilities – such as Russian Federation and China – would decide against such a move, he said.
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“It kind of sounded again like the 1980s”, said Melkonian. “But I believe even a country such as Pakistan would have to do something now”.
