UK warns of nuclear war risk amid West's lack of dialogue with Russia and China

Leaving out North Korea and Iran, the UK's national security adviser has warned that the West risks the initiation of a nuclear war with China or Russia. Due to a “breakdown of communication”, British NSA Stephen Lovegrove said that Moscow and Beijing pose a greater risk of “rapid escalation to the strategic conflict”. With escalating Russia-Ukraine war engulfing Europe in chaos, the international community has grown even more concerned about the potential nuclear conflict. 

In a speech in Washington at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Lovegrove said that he believed the deterioration of communication with China and Russia has caused a “rapid escalation of the strategic conflict”. 

“The cold war’s two monolithic blocks of the USSR and NATO– though not without alarming bumps – were able to reach a shared understanding of doctrine that is today absent,” he said. “Doctrine is opaque in Moscow and Beijing, let alone Pyongyang or Tehran.”

Reiterating the importance of dialogue between the two nations, Lovegrove said that during the Cold War era, the world benefitted from a “series of negotiations and dialogues” that elevated the West’s “understanding of Soviet doctrine and capabilities, and vice versa. This gave us both a higher level of confidence that we would not miscalculate our way into nuclear war”.

“Today, we do not have the same foundations with others who may threaten us in the future – particularly with China. Here the UK strongly supports President Biden’s proposed talks with China as an important step,” he added. 

Biden expected to talk to China amid tensions over Taiwan

Amid what the UK considers a nuclear threat looming on the West by China and Russia, US President Joe Biden is expected to phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday which would also be their first conversation since March. Biden and Xi’s call comes in the backdrop of tensions between the US and China over US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit. The US House Speaker has been planning on visiting Taiwan, a self-ruled democratic island that China has claimed as its own “breakaway province”. 

 Last year in June, China tested a hypersonic missile that circumnavigated the globe before hitting a target. Even Russia and the United States are developing hypersonic missiles that travel over five times the speed of sound and can manoeuvre in the air, stated media reports. Praising the US opening dialogue with China, Lovegrove said, “We have clear concerns about China’s nuclear modernisation programme that will increase both the number and types of nuclear weapon systems in its arsenal.”

Image: AP