‘Will outmatch rivals in new nuclear arms race’

US PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump on Friday welcomed a new nuclear weapons arms race with Russia, vowing in an off-camera interview with a television host that America would “outmatch” any adversary. The comment came one day after he said in a post on Twitter that the United States should “strengthen and expand” its own nuclear capabilities.

The President-elect escalated his comments about nuclear weapons with the show of bravado during a brief, off-air telephone conversation from his estate in Florida, according to Mika Brzezinski, the co-host of MSNBC’S Morning Joe programme.

“Let it be an arms race,” Trump said, according to Brzezinski, who described her conversation with the President-elect moments later. Trump added: “We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.”

Taken at face value, the comment appears to reflect a willingness on Trump’s part to restart the costly and dangerous Cold Warera nuclear weapons competition between the United States and the old Soviet Union. Both nations have sought for decades to reverse that buildup of huge nuclear arsenals.

Friday’s comments and Thursday’s Twitter post appeared to be meant specifically for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had said in an end-of-the-year speech to his military this week that Russia must bolster its nuclear capabilities to “reliably penetrate” missile defense systems of any other nation.

Putin said during a lengthy news conference in Moscow on Friday that Russia would continue to modernize its armed forces, including nuclear weapons. Russia is not seeking a new arms race or to develop new nuclear warheads, he said, but is instead seeking ways to improve its armaments so that they could pierce US missile defences.

Trump has not provided any details about his plans regarding an expansion of nuclear capabilities, but Sean Spicer, the incoming press secretary in Trump’s administration, said earlier on the Morning Joe programme that the president-elect’s Twitter post about nuclear weapons Thursday was intended to send a message to America’s adversaries around the world.

Asked if Trump’s post on Twitter was a response to Putin’s speech to the military, Spicer said, “I think it’s putting every nation on notice that the United States is going to reassert its position in the globe.” NYT