US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping made a landmark agreement on Saturday, emphasising the importance of human decision-making over artificial intelligence when it comes to nuclear weapons. 

“The two leaders affirmed the need to maintain human control over the decision to use nuclear weapons,” said a statement from the White House. “The two leaders also stressed the need to consider carefully the potential risks and develop AI technology in the military field in a prudent and responsible manner.”

This breakthrough marks a significant step forward in discussions between the two nations on nuclear arms and artificial intelligence, areas where progress has been challenging.

The US has been pushing China to engage in nuclear arms talks for months, but negotiations stalled after briefly resuming in November, with the US expressing frustration regarding China’s responsiveness.

The US Defense Department estimates that China currently possesses around 500 operational nuclear warheads, with projections suggesting this number will exceed 1,000 by 2030. 

This rapid buildup has raised concerns, particularly given China’s modernised nuclear program, which includes advanced ballistic missile submarines, hypersonic glide vehicles, and regular nuclear-armed sea patrols.

China’s nuclear arsenal is dwarfed by those of Russia (1,710 operational warheads) and the US (1,770 operational warheads), but its advancements have sparked worries about a potential arms race. Despite this, China maintains a policy of no first use and advocates for minimal nuclear deterrence.

The Biden administration updated its classified nuclear guidance earlier this year, citing concerns about nuclear arsenals in China, North Korea, and Russia. While this agreement is a positive step, it remains unclear whether it will lead to further talks or concrete actions.
 

Russia to practice tactical nuclear weapon scenario – defence ministry. File Picture
| Photo Credit: AP

Russia on May 6 said it would hold a military exercise that will include practice for the use of tactical nuclear weapons after what the defence ministry said were provocative threats from Western officials.

The defence ministry said the exercise was ordered by President Vladimir Putin and would test the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to perform combat missions.

The military drills will include practice for the preparation and deployment for use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, the defence ministry said. Missile formations in the Southern Military District and naval forces will take part.

“During the exercise, a set of measures will be carried out to practice the issues of preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons,” the defence ministry said.

Russia has the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons.

The exercise is aimed at ensuring Russia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty “in response to provocative statements and threats by certain Western officials against the Russian Federation”, the ministry said.

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine touched off the worst breakdown in relations between it and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, according to Russian and U.S. diplomats.

Russia casts the war as a battle with the West, which Putin says ignored Moscow’s attempt at friendship after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union and sought to grab control of Ukraine while enlarging the NATO military alliance eastwards.

The West and Ukraine say they will not rest until Russian forces are defeated, and cast the war as an imperial-style land grab aimed at forcing the country back into Moscow’s orbit.

United Nations:

Russia vetoed on Wednesday a U.S.-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution that called on countries to prevent an arms race in outer space, a move that the United States says suggests Moscow might be “hiding something.”

“It’s a joke of a resolution,” Russia‘s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters ahead of the vote.

The vote came after Washington accused Moscow of developing a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon, an allegation that Russia has denied. Speaking ahead of the vote by the 15-member council, U.S. administration officials declined to share details of intelligence they had to back the allegation.

Deputy U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood told reporters ahead of the vote that if Russia did not vote for the resolution “it makes you wonder whether they’re hiding something.”

The draft Security Council resolution was put to a vote by the U.S. and Japan after nearly six weeks of negotiations. It received 13 votes in favor, while China abstained and Russia cast a veto.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this year that Russia was against the deployment of nuclearweaponsinspace.

“Our position is clear and transparent: We have always been categorically against and are now against the deployment of nuclearweaponsinspace,” Putin said.

The U.N. text would have affirmed an obligation to comply with the Outer Space Treaty and called on states “to contribute actively to the objective of the peaceful use of outer space and of the prevention of an arms race in outer space.”

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty bars signatories – including Russia and the United States – from placing “in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclearweapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction.

U.S. intelligence officials, according to three people familiar with their findings, believe the Russian capability to be a space-based nuclear bomb whose electromagnetic radiation if detonated would disable vast networks of satellites.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has said Russia has not yet deployed such a weapon.

Governments have increasingly viewed satellites in Earth’s orbit as crucial assets that enable an array of military capabilities on Earth, with space-based communications and satellite-connected drones in the war in Ukraine serving as recent examples of space‘s outsized role in modern warfare.

Russiainvaded neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said earlier this month that Moscow and Washington were in contact over the non-deployment of nuclearweaponsinspace, the TASS news agency quoted him as saying.

“We are in contact in that they rejected further discussions of the topic,” said a senior U.S. administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “I don’t know if he’s referencing something else, but that has been the level of contact that we’ve had on this topic.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)