When North Korea and Iran decided to go nuclear, it was imminent that west will not sit tight for long. And, proving all fears true, yesterday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced a full-fledged expansion of the nation’s nuclear stockpile in the name of nuclear deterrence.

Key plans

1. A fleet of new generation of nuclear capable submarines costing between £15 ($38 billion) and £20 billion ($50 billion), which equals 3 percent of the defense budget over the coming three decades, would be introduced.
2. Britain will seek American help in developing the next generation of nuclear capable missiles, though it already have D5 Trident nuclear missiles.
3. UK’s nuclear warhead stockpile would be reduced by 20 percent - from 200 to 160; which doesn’t make any sense when the energy will be utilized for further expansion

Mr. Blair told the House of Commons:

Ultimately, this decision is a judgment, a judgment about possible risks to our country and its security; and the place of the deterrent in thwarting those risks. The Government’s judgment, on balance, is that though the Cold War is over, we cannot be certain in the decades ahead that a major nuclear threat to our strategic interests will not emerge.

It is just that, in the final analysis, the risk of giving up something that has been one of the mainstays of our security since the War, and moreover doing so when the one certain thing about our world today is its uncertainty, is not a risk I feel we can responsibly take.

Mr. Blair clarified that they cannot ignore the nuclear strategies of North Korea and Iran and it would be “unwise and dangerous for Britain, alone of any of the nuclear powers, to give up its independent nuclear deterrent”.

He also emphasized on the fact that if Britain alone decides to disarm itself, other countries would certainly take it as their weakness and it’s quite not possible for Britain to set an example by completely disarming itself and persuade other nations to do the same.

Blair’s statement that ‘Our independent nuclear deterrent is the ultimate insurance’, clearly measures the depth of fear nuclear capable Goliaths, who’re already sitting comfortably and smugly on their nuclear thrones, nurture now. Certainly, after North Korean tryst with nuclear energy, the world is not the same. Very soon, and not surprisingly, we’d see other nations too moving ahead with their nuclear programs. However, strategically, it’s a positive move, in the midst of the looming uncertainty. What do you say?

Via: The Australian