LONODN (The Guardian) - The west risks the initiation of nuclear conflict with China or Russia because of a “breakdown of communication” with the two countries, the UK’s national security adviser has warned.
In a speech in Washington at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Sir Stephen Lovegrove said he believed the deterioration of communication with China and Russia had created a higher risk of “rapid escalation to strategic conflict”.
“The cold war’s two monolithic blocks of the USSR and NATO – though not without alarming bumps – were able to reach a shared understanding of doctrine that is today absent,” said Lovegrove, noting that deterioration of communication with China and Russia has sparked a risk of “rapid escalation to strategic conflict.”
“During the cold war, we benefited from a series of negotiations and dialogues that improved our understanding of Soviet doctrine and capabilities, and vice versa,” added Lovegrove, who was appointed to UK government’s most senior defense position in March 2021.
“This gave us both a higher level of confidence that we would not miscalculate our way into nuclear war.”
He further said that they do not have the same foundations with others today, who may threaten them in future, referring to China, stressing that London “strongly supports U.S. President Biden’s proposed talks with China as an important step”.
Last year, Beijing tested a hypersonic missile that circumnavigated the globe before hitting a target. China, Russia and the U.S. are also developing hypersonic missiles that travel at more than five times the speed of sound and can maneuver in the air.
Russia became the first country to use hypersonic systems during a war when it deployed in Ukraine its Kinzhal missiles – which, according to the Kremlin, are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Commenting on Russia’s ongoing military operation in Ukraine, the senior British national security official accused Moscow of “acting deliberately and recklessly to undermine the global security architecture.”
“That’s a pattern that includes the illegal annexation of Crimea, the use of chemical and radiological weapons on UK soil, and the repeated violations that caused the collapse of the INF [intermediate-range nuclear forces] treaty.”
Despite the increased risks, however, Lovegrove stressed that much of the existing architecture remains “vital,” such as the chemical weapons convention and the biological and toxin weapons convention, and the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
He went on to caution that the reality is “that current structures alone will not deliver what we need a modern arms control system to achieve.”