Arms Race Between US, China, Russia Is Shaping Up

The U.S., China and Russia are all boosting up their arsenal of nuclear weapons, Spiegel International reports.

And while nuclear war hasn’t been too much of a concern since the Cold War, the outlet reports that a new arms race between the countries is already underway.

"We are returning to the days of the 1950s and 1960s, when each country decided for itself how many and what kind of weapons to deploy," Vienna-based disarmament expert Nikolai Sokov told Spiegel International.

Over the past several years, multiple disarmament treaties have been dismantled. The shift is something the UN high representative for disarmament affairs has recognized.

"The move toward nuclear disarmament has stalled and is now in reverse,” Izumi Nakamitsu said.

Trump is looking to bump up spending on nuclear weapons from $37.3 to $44.5 billion, according to Spiegel.

In Russia, there is work being done on a nuclear mega-torpedo that could wipe out coastal cities with artificial tsunamis. China has the world’s largest arsenal of ballistic missiles and is not limited by any disarmament treaty, Spiegel reports.

"During the Cold War, all the nuclear weapons that had been stockpiled added up to equivalent of 1.5 million Hiroshima bombs. Today, there are only 100,000 bombs left that are equivalent to Hiroshima,” international security expert Alexei Arbatov said. "But that is also enough to put an end to humanity."

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