US allies oppose US President Biden's efforts to change the nuclear policy

London/Washington: – US President Joe Biden has initiated efforts to change the US nuclear policy. Discussions are rife that President Biden may adopt a defensive approach like ‘No First Use’ or ‘Sole Purpose’. The allies of the United States have strongly opposed President Biden’s efforts. These allies are Japan, Australia and some European countries. European officials have warned that if the United States changed its policies, it would be a gift for Russia and China.

The United States has consciously kept its nuclear policy ambiguous since cold war times. According to that, the United States can launch a nuclear strike even before the enemy attack. The US policy also assures to provide a nuclear umbrella to the European and the Asian allies. But the Biden administration has initiated moves to amend the nuclear policy.

Biden, during his campaign for the Presidential elections, had advocated the Sole Purpose policy. As per this policy, the United States’ criteria for launching a nuclear attack is not known. These will include limited options like stopping a direct or a retaliatory attack on the United States. This policy is said to be a different version of the No First Use policy.

The United States will be announcing the Nuclear Posture Review by the end of this year. The allies are expressing concerns that President Biden may announce the amendments to the nuclear policy at this time. Therefore, the allies from the Indo-Pacific and Europe have started pressurising the Biden administration. A few months ago, the United States had sent a questionnaire to its allies regarding the nuclear policy. Sources informed that while answering the questionnaire, the allies had expressed extreme resentment regarding the changes to the nuclear policy.

Repercussions of this were felt even during the recently held meeting between the US and French Presidents. The statement issued after the meeting included the commitment on the issue of the United Nuclear Alliance. At the same time, assurance that the United States will discuss the nuclear issues with France was also given in the statement. European officials and international analysts have started expressing grave concerns over the issue.

Senior European officials warned that if the United States changed its nuclear policy, it would gift Russia and China. Michael Green, an expert in the field, claimed that the problem with this policy is that allies will trust the No First Use or Sole Purpose policies of the United States, but the adversaries will never believe it. Richard Fontaine, Chief of Centre for a New American Security, warned ‘The Russian, Chinese and North Korean threat has increased since the Barack Obama tenure. In this scenario, this is not the right time to change the US nuclear policy.’

Republican Senator James Risch fired a salvo of criticism, saying changes to the US nuclear policy will betray the US allies. Analysts are also claiming that if the United States changed its policy, countries like Japan and South Korea could make nuclear weapons. There is a feeling in the allies that the United States has left them to their fate, with US military withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Nord Strem-2 pipeline issue. Analysts have warned that changes to the US nuclear policy will create a major jolt in this scenario.