China pulls out of nuke talks; Romania buys F-35s as F-16s head for Ukraine

(Originally published July 18 in “What in the World“) China said it had pulled out of nuclear arms-control talks with the United States to protest Washington’s sale of weapons to Taiwan.

Beijing and Washington resumed talks last November amid concerns about rapidly growing nuclear arsenals. The Pentagon warned in late-2022 that China was on track to triple its nuclear arsenal by 2035, giving it roughly 1,500 warheads.

The U.S. has more than 5,200 nuclear warheads and has been upgrading its arsenal, including a new nuclear warhead, the W93, to sit atop submarine-based nuclear missiles and deploying the 50-kiloton B61-12 air-dropped gravity bomb at U.S. bases in Europe. Last fall, the Pentagon announced plans to build a new, 360 kiloton B61-13 nuclear gravity bomb. This bomb is designed to replace older B61-7s from the 1980s and 1990s with a more accurate alternative, as well as the massive, civilization-ending, 1.2 megaton B83-1s.

The U.S. State Dept. said China was merely moving in lockstep with Moscow, which last February suspended participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control pact between Russia and the United States.

Romania, meanwhile, said it expects to seal a deal this fall with Washington to buy 32 F-35 fighter jets for $6.5 billion. Romania has become a key staging point for supplying its Black Sea neighbor Ukraine with weapons against Russia’s invasion and a staunch U.S. ally against both Russia and Iran. Bucharest has pledged to give Ukraine one of its own U.S.-supplied Patriot missile batteries. Romania already has a Thaad (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) battery the U.S. installed in 2019 at a base along the Danube on the Bulgarian border. The U.S. has three bases in Romania and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization last November announced plans to open an F-16 pilot training hub there. Early last year, Romania announced plans to pay $217 million for a Naval Strike Missile Coastal Defense System.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, back in Kyiv after attending last week’s summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Washington, says Ukraine needs more F-16s than have been pledged, as well as many more Patriot missile batteries.

Norway said last week that it would donate six F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Oslo’s announcement comes after Washington said F-16s from Denmark and the Netherlands were on their way to Ukraine. Belgium and the United States have also said they will provide F-16s to Kyiv, although the exact number hasn’t been specified for security reasons.