MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd March, 2021) London's plans to raise its nuclear arsenal cap show that it is necessary to invite both the United Kingdom and France to join negotiations on strategic stability, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Monday.
On March 16, the UK released its new defense strategy, under which the nuclear weapons stockpile would be increased to 260 warheads, reversing the previous plans to reduce it to 180 warheads by mid-2020s.
"Since the very beginning, we have said that it is necessary to take France and the United Kingdom into consideration at the next stage of negotiations on strengthening strategic stability, since as the two key players, the United States and Russia, decrease their nuclear potential, the proportion of their potentials in the nuclear formula is increasing. The steps that the UK government is currently taking, I mean the plans to increase the number of nuclear warheads, show that our formulation was right," Grushko told reporters.
