US President Joe Biden has approved a highly classified nuclear strategy aimed at deterring Russia, China, and North Korea, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed officials at the Pentagon and the National Security Council.
The document – ‘Nuclear Employment Guidance’ – was adopted in March, marking the first time the US nuclear doctrine has been focused on Beijing’s rapidly developing nuclear capabilities, the newspaper said.
According to the NYT, the document is updated roughly every four years and is so secretive that there are no digitized copies.
Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy Vipin Narang told reporters earlier this month that Biden “recently issued updated nuclear weapons employment guidance to account for multiple nuclear-armed adversaries.” China’s growing nuclear arsenal was something the US “neither anticipated nor accounted for” during nuclear planning decades ago, he added.
Asked about the NYT report, White House spokesman Sean Savett said, “the guidance issued earlier this year is not a response to any single entity, country, nor threat.”
In 2023, the Pentagon estimated that China will double its stockpile of operational nuclear warheads to over 1,000 by 2030, “much of which will be deployed at higher readiness levels.” The US currently has 5,550 warheads, while Russia has 6,255, according to estimates by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The revision of the nuclear strategy occurs amid heightened tensions between the US and its NATO allies on one side, and China and Russia on the other, with both sides accusing each other of escalation over Ukraine and Taiwan. Washington has also been rattled by the increase in ballistic missile tests by North Korea.
Both Moscow and Beijing have accused the US of inciting conflicts around the world and seeking to impose its will on other countries. Earlier this month, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang urged the US and its allies “to abandon their Cold-War mentality.”
During a trip to China in May, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that the “strategic partnership” between Moscow and Beijing “is not directed against anyone.”