‘Nuclear War Cannot Be Won And Must Never Be Fought’: Five World Powers Reaffirm Promise To Avoid Nuclear War

The leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. – issued a statement on Monday reaffirming their commitment to avoid nuclear war.

“We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” the statement read. “As nuclear use would have far-reaching consequences, we also affirm that nuclear weapons—for as long as they continue to exist—should serve defensive purposes, deter aggression, and prevent war. We believe strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented.”

The statement comes in the middle of increased tension between Russia and Ukraine, as well as ongoing tensions between China and the U.S. 

On Sunday, President Joe Biden promised Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky that the U.S. “will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine.”

“The leaders expressed support for diplomatic efforts, starting next week with the bilateral Strategic Stability Dialogue, at NATO through the NATO-Russia Council, and at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. 

On Sunday, The Daily Wire also reported on China’s increasing targeting of the West: “The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is mining Western social media — such as Facebook and Twitter — to ‘equip its government agencies, military and police with information on foreign targets.’”

China targets foreign journalists and academics’ social media and “analyzes Western chatter on Hong Kong and Taiwan; and a cybercenter in Xinjiang, home to most of China’s Uyghur population, that catalogues the mainly Muslim minority group’s language content abroad,” according to The Washington Post. 

China has also reportedly built a satellite that can capture high-quality images of American cities. According to Business Insider:

The commercial Beijing-3 satellite, launched by China in June, conducted an in-depth scan of a 1,470 square-mile area in the San Francisco Bay. The satellite captured the area within 42 seconds, The South China Morning Post first reported, citing results published this month in the Chinese peer-reviewed journal Spacecraft Engineering.

Beijing-3 has a unique advantage up its sleeve: It can pitch and yaw at up to 10 degrees per second while not compromising image quality as it orbits the Earth, said lead scientist Yang Fang, who headed the project run by DFH Satellite Company under the Chinese Academy of Space and Technology.

Normally, satellite cameras have to be kept still when they take high-definition images, and thus can only observe straight strips of land as they orbit above the area. So they sometimes have to fly over a region multiple times to scan the whole area or work in tandem with other satellites.

The joint statement from the five nuclear-weapon states promises that the leaders will pursue diplomatic solutions to avoid military confrontations. “We intend to continue seeking bilateral and multilateral diplomatic approaches to avoid military confrontations, strengthen stability and predictability, increase mutual understanding and confidence, and prevent an arms race that would benefit none and endanger all,” the statement concludes. “We are resolved to pursue constructive dialogue with mutual respect and acknowledgment of each other’s security interests and concerns.”