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China urges largest nuclear states to negotiate a 'no-first-use' treaty (www.reuters.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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"Nuclear-weapon states should negotiate and conclude a treaty on no-first-use of nuclear weapons against each other or make a political statement in this regard," Sun said.

China and India are currently the only two nuclear powers to formally maintain a no first use policy. Russia and the United States have the world's biggest nuclear arsenals.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Kind of? They call it that sometimes but it doesn't look like a true no first use policy in the same vein as China's and India's. Putin also threatens nuclear weapons if NATO troops were to get involved in Ukraine, and openly questions the policy.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/09/europe/russia-putin-nuclear-weapons-intl/index.html

I'm not sure any nuclear country would stick to these policies if they truly faced an existential threat, whether that threat was nuclear or not. Russia's policy has a carve out for any existential threat including conventional weapons. US and Russian policies are pretty close, basically okay to use for any existential threat. Doesn't hurt to try and negotiate more no first use policies and reinforce the norm though.

Looks like the UK, France, and Pakistan also lack no first use policies.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_first_use

As far as I can tell the article is correct, China and India are the only current nuclear powers with true no first use policies. If that's incorrect happy to learn more though. Israel not on here cause officially not a nuclear power, but hey we weren't born yesterday.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Wow great info, thanks so much for doing all that legwork! It makes sense that Putin would put less stock into the policy than did his predecessors, because while the leaked Soviet archives show the USSR was genuinely terrified of nuclear war and mostly built up in response to US expansion of nuclear programs, I feel like Putin sees it more as a tool for intimidation.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

The post-USSR Russian Federation and Yeltsin, a US tool ironically enough and traitor to the USSR, were the ones who revoked Russia's no-first-use nuclear policy from 1993 through 1997.