翻转特朗普措施美国务院公布核弹头数量

文 / 陈慧璋

10/05/2021

美国国务院周二公布，截至2020年9月30日，美军拥有3750枚现役和非现役核弹头，比上年同期减少55枚，比2017年同期减少72枚。（法新社）

（早报讯）美国国务院周二（5日）公布了美国储存的核弹头数量。这是美国四年来首次公布该数据，2017年特朗普上台后拒绝遵循公布核弹头数量的惯例。

法新社报道，美国国务院说，截至2020年9月30日，美军拥有3750枚现役和非现役核弹头，比上年同期减少55枚，比2017年同期减少72枚。

周二公布的核弹头数量也是1965年以来的最低水平。1965年为美苏冷战高峰期，当时美国的核弹头总量多达3万1255枚。

拜登政府正在争取与俄罗斯重启军备控制谈判，这项谈判在特朗普任内陷入停滞。

美国国务院周二发表声明说：“提高各国核储备的透明度对防止核扩散和裁军努力至关重要。”

Source

US reveals nuclear bomb numbers after Trump blackout

AFP

10/05/2021

A deactivated US Titan II nuclear ballistic missile BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI AFP

The US State Department published on Tuesday the number of nuclear warheads the country stockpiles for the first time in four years, after former president Donald Trump placed a blackout on the data.

As of September 30, 2020, the US military maintained 3,750 active and inactive nuclear warheads, down by 55 from a year earlier and by 72 from the same date in 2017.

The figure was also the lowest level since the US nuclear stockpile peaked at the height of the Cold War with Russia in 1965, when the total was 31,255 warheads.

The numbers were released Tuesday amid an effort by the administration of President Joe Biden to restart arms controls talks with Russia after they stalled under Trump.

“Increasing the transparency of states’ nuclear stockpiles is important to nonproliferation and disarmament efforts,” the State Department said in a statement.

Trump, who pulled the United States from the Iran nuclear deal and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia, also left another crucial pact, the New Start Treaty on the rocks last year before its scheduled expiration on February 5.

New Start caps the number of nuclear warheads held by Washington and Moscow, and letting it expire could have sparked a reversal of warhead reductions on both sides.

Trump said he wanted a new deal that includes China, which only has a fraction of the warheads that the United States and Russia have.

Biden, who came in to office on January 20, immediately proposed a five-year extension to New Start, which Russian President Vladimir Putin quickly agreed to.

The deal caps at 1,550 the number of nuclear warheads that can be deployed by Moscow and Washington.

Last week Russian and US diplomats held talks behind closed doors in Geneva to begin discussions on a successor to New Start and also controls on conventional weapons.

A US official called the talks “productive,” but both sides said the mere fact of holding the talks was positive.

According to a January 2021 tally by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which includes retired warheads — not counted in the State Department’s numbers — the United States had 5,550 warheads, compared to 6,255 in Russia, 350 in China, 225 in Britain, and 290 in France.

India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have together around 460 nuclear warheads, according to the institute.

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