US will use nuclear weapons only in extreme situations, State Department says

US State Department building in Washington DC. File photoUN, 5 Aug The US will only consider using nuclear weapons in extreme situations to protect vital interests, Undersecretary for Arms Control Bonnie Jenkins said.

"The US will not will use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear countries that are members of the NPT,” she added.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s statement before the start of the UN NPT Review Conference spoke of the administration’s readiness “in an expeditious manner” Discuss with Russia a new arms control system to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START III), which expires in 2026. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that no proposals had been received from Washington in this context. At the initiative of Moscow, in June 2021 in Geneva, at a meeting of the presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden adopted a statement that in a nuclear war there is no can be winners and it should never be untied. In January 2022, all five leaders of the permanent members of the UN Security Council signed the same now collective multilateral statement. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the United States and its allies, having unleashed a hybrid confrontation with Russia over Ukraine, are dangerously teetering on the brink of a nuclear conflict, and attempts to blame Moscow for this are “absolutely unacceptable.”China accuses the US of violating the NPT