Fears grew of a global nuclear arms race as the New START treaty between the US and Russia expired, while China said it would not join talks to curb proliferation and other countries weighed adding nuclear deterrence to their arsenal.
The end of the 2010 treaty represents “a moment of increasing peril” for the world, one of its negotiators wrote for the Center for European Policy Analysis. Russian aggression and US unpredictability are making European powers consider boosting their capabilities, and talks are underway over a potential pan-European nuclear umbrella, with Germany perhaps developing its own weapons.
Talks are, meanwhile, due to open on Friday between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, though one leading journalist warned it wasn’t clear what either side’s endgame was.
