WASHINGTON, November 6. /TASS/. US President Joe Biden’s national security team will soon review the conditions under which the United States may adopt a "no first use" policy with regards to nuclear weapons, the Politico newspaper said on Friday, citing sources in the White House.
Biden’s top national security advisers will also study an option to declare that the "sole purpose" of the US’ nuclear arsenal is the deterrence of a nuclear conflict and not its use in response to a conventional war or other strategic assaults like cyberattacks. The Pentagon opposes any policy changes due to "China’s surprising nuclear expansion in recent months alongside Russia’s modernization of its arsenal," the newspaper added.
The approval of at least one of these options "would mark major departures from the current posture, which has been purposely ambiguous throughout the nuclear age about whether the United States might strike first, and holds that atomic weapons are for ‘deterrence of nuclear and non-nuclear attack’," the newspaper stressed.
It is expected that these issues will be reviewed at a meeting of Biden’s National Security Council in November. The newspaper’s sources in the Biden administration reiterated that the US president would ultimately personally approve the country’s nuclear doctrine which is expected to be ready in January 2022. However, his choice will also depend on what is presented to him. The newspaper emphasized that "it doesn’t appear the Pentagon wants to give him much of a choice." A source in the Department of Defense told the newspaper that it was unlikely that both options would be submitted to the American leader. Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby, when asked to comment on this information, stressed that the "account offered to you by the official is inaccurate." According to the spokesman, the Department of Defense is participating in "an inclusive, comprehensive process" of reviewing the American nuclear doctrine.
In March, Biden stated that his administration was taking "steps to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy." Practically every new US administration reviewed almost all doctrines and concepts in the sphere of national security.