The West and China could “miscalculate our way into nuclear war”, the UK’s national security adviser warned on Wednesday night.
Sir Stephen Lovegrove said Britain had “clear concerns” that Beijing was expanding and modernising its nuclear arsenal, adding that China’s “disdain” for arms control agreements was a “daunting prospect”.
In a hardening of the UK position, Sir Stephen warned that the world may no longer have the Cold War safeguards that prevented nuclear war with the USSR and raised the prospect of an “uncontrolled conflict” between China and the West.
He said the world was entering a “dangerous new age of proliferation”, with threats from genetic weapons, space-based systems and lasers.
“We should be honest – strategic stability is at risk,” Sir Stephen said in a speech at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “We need to start thinking about the new security order.”
🔴 The West and China could “miscalculate our way into nuclear war” with China, the UK’s national security adviser warned on Wednesday night https://t.co/wVNlUiPKfD
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) July 27, 2022