Germany has denied a report that it is considering funding British and French nuclear weapons programmes, while saying it is discussing wider cooperation on nuclear deterrence with France and within NATO.
The U.S. State Department says China carried out a nuclear test in June 2020, days after deadly clashes with Indian troops at Galwan. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation did not detect any test, which the U.S. said was conducted by a decoupling method that could minimise seismic sensitivity.
Scholz: “At best, it’s the start of a process that could lead to direct talks between Ukraine and Russia. In Switzerland, it will be about the safety of nuclear power plants, grain exports, the issue of prisoner exchanges and the necessary taboo on the use of nuclear weapons. Once again, this is all still in its infancy.”
Indian security officials had earlier refused to render any assessment on the sincerity of the Pakistan Army’s operations against the Taliban. But over the past few days, senior security officers at Raisina Hill and elsewhere have dismissed the operations as a ‘fraud on the world’.
The speculation over US plans for securing Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, in the event of their capture by the Taliban, has not gone unnoticed by the strategic community in India. “India is obviously the most natural and most achievable target for them,” says one brasshat.
The scenario envisages the eventuality of the collapse of the Pakistan state with the country being overrun by Taliban, throwing-up private armies of feudal warlords, with the possibility of some getting access to nuclear weapons. The Indian security establishment sees itself bereft of options in case of a Pakistani nightmare scenario coming to fruition.
