in a plan to ensure its national
security the united kingdom is planning
to lift a cap on its nuclear warhead
stockpile
prime minister boris johnson unveiled
the uk's post-brexit
defense and foreign affairs strategy
today johnson also announced
in parliament that britain will pivot
its foreign policy focus
towards asia the prime minister
meanwhile reaffirmed
britain's loyalty to nato the defense
alliance
says it's committed to nuclear
disarmament on
china britain will remain unswervingly
committed
to nato and preserving peace and
security
in europe and from this secure basis we
will seek out friends and partners
wherever they can be found building a
coalition for openness
and innovation and engaging more deeply
in the indo-pacific all right for more
now i'm joined by oliver meyer from the
institute for peace
research and security policy here in
berlin it's good to have you on the
program
so what is going on here does the
british prime minister does he
feel that the uk needs to increase its
nuclear deterrence
yeah obviously the united kingdom is
reassessing its nuclear policy
it has decided to change course
just six years ago the strategic defense
review had
decided to cut nuclear warhead numbers
the united kingdom wanted to go down to
180
nuclear weapons now it's becoming the
first western state
to announce that it's increasing nuclear
warheads and wants to
have up to 260 nuclear weapons
does this change this increase does it
violate
any nuclear non-proliferation treaties
or regulations
well the united kingdom has committed
under the nuclear non-proliferation
treaty to reduce the number
and role of nuclear weapons like other
nuclear weapons states
too and it's clearly
at least in letter violating that
political commitment there's also
an obligation to work towards the goal
of a nuclear weapons-free world
that is hard to reconcile with this
decision it's
putting it at odds also with a
commitment by nato
to work towards a world free of nuclear
weapon it's coming at a time when
the new u.s administration under
president joe biden
is taking new steps to reduce nuclear
weapons just extended the new star
treaty with russia
russia wants the united kingdom and
france to become of the next
treaty the united states wants china to
become
a party and now comes this announcement
to increase reliance on nuclear weapons
to increase the number of nuclear
weapons so it clearly sits at odds with
international commitments here and how
do you think
the nato members the allies of the uk
how are they going to react to this news
difficult to say it will be a difficult
discussion i would imagine in nato
this comes at a time when nato is
embarking
on discussions on a new strategic
concept arms control will be part of
that
discussion and nato has also committed
to not mirror russian nuclear policies
and that is difficult to say it has
always pointed fingers at china and said
look china's increasing its nuclear
arsenal
at similarly no numbers as the uk
but we are not we are moving in a
different direction or at least keeping
stable that argument is going to be
harder to make so
it's um it's making it more difficult
for western states to argue that they
are the good ones
in this game and it's really not quite
clear what the
military and strategic rationale is for
increasing warhead numbers but of course
frankly it doesn't make such a big
difference whether you have 200 or 260
nuclear weapons
that's true when it comes to nuclear
weapons that's a very good point oliver
meyer from the institute for peace
research and security policy mr meyer we
appreciate your time
and your insights tonight thank you me
you're welcome