UK adviser warns of potential nuclear war due to communication breakdown

The UK's national security advisor, Stephen Lovegrove, has warned of a growing risk of nuclear conflict with Russia and China, citing the breakdown of cold war communication channels.

According to British NSA Lovegrove, Moscow and Beijing represent a larger risk of "rapid escalation of the strategic confrontation."

“The Cold War’s two monolithic blocks of the USSR and NATO – though not without alarming bumps – were able to reach a shared understanding of doctrine that is today absent,” Lovegrove said Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in the U.S.

“Doctrine is opaque in Moscow and Beijing, let alone Pyongyang or Tehran.”

 Lovegrove said the world benefited from a "series of negotiations and dialogues" during the Cold War that improved the West's "understanding of Soviet doctrine and capabilities, and vice versa." 

“Today, we do not have the same foundations as others who may threaten us in the future – particularly with China. Here the UK strongly supports President Biden’s proposed talks with China as an important step,” he added.

US President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping later on Thursday.

Picture Credits: AP 

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