In its new military strategy, the US government sees China as the greatest permanent threat. It is the only country that “both want to restore international order and increasingly have the strength to do so,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (69) said on Thursday at the strategy’s presentation.
Russia, on the other hand, is classified as an “acute” threat. The word was chosen carefully, Austin emphasized. “Unlike China, Russia cannot systematically challenge the United States in the long run,” Austin said. “But Russian aggression is a direct and acute threat to our interests and values.”
With regard to the use of US nuclear weapons, it is said that a very high threshold is still set. However, the strategy does not prescribe that they should only be used in response to a nuclear attack.
North Korea and Iran also identified as a problem
For North Korea, the strategy includes the warning that using nuclear weapons against the United States or its partners would mean “the end of the regime” of ruler Kim Jong-un (38). “There is no scenario where Kim’s regime could use nuclear weapons and survive,” the Pentagon said.
Regarding Iran, it is said that the country does not currently have a nuclear weapon, “and we currently believe it is not trying to get one”. However, Iran is building nuclear capabilities with which to develop nuclear weapons. (SDA/chs)