NATO in talks to put nuclear weapons on standby, boss tells British Telegraph

LONDON (Reuters) – NATO is in talks to deploy more nuclear weapons, bring them out of storage and put them on standby, in the face of growing threats from Russia and China, the NATO chief said on Monday. alliance.

Jens Stoltenberg told Britain's Telegraph newspaper that there were live consultations between members to use transparency around its nuclear arsenal as a deterrent.

“I won't go into operational detail about how many nuclear warheads should be operational and which should be stockpiled, but we need to consult on these issues. That's exactly what we're doing,” he said. -he declared to the newspaper.

“Transparency helps send the direct message that of course we are a nuclear alliance.”

“NATO's goal is of course a world without nuclear weapons, but as long as nuclear weapons exist, we will remain a nuclear alliance, because a world in which Russia, China and North Korea possess weapons nuclear weapons, and NATO does not have any, is a more dangerous world.

Stoltenberg said last week that nuclear weapons were NATO's “ultimate security guarantee” and a way to preserve peace.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned that Moscow could use nuclear weapons to defend itself in extreme circumstances. It accuses the United States and its European allies of pushing the world to the brink of nuclear confrontation by supplying Ukraine with billions of dollars in weapons, some of which are being used against Russian territory.

NATO, which has played a larger role in coordinating arms deliveries to kyiv, rarely speaks publicly about weapons, although the United States is known to have deployed nuclear bombs in several locations in Europe .

(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Bernadette Baum)