After years of interruption: America publishes the number of its nuclear warheads again

The United States published the number of its nuclear warheads for the first time in four years.

According to the State Department on Tuesday, America held 3,750 operational and non-operational nuclear warheads on September 30th last year.

That is 55 fewer than a year earlier and 72 fewer than at the end of September 2017. Former American President Donald Trump had declared the number of nuclear warheads a military secret.

The current number is also the lowest since the height of the Cold War with Russia in 1967, when the United States had 31,255 warheads.

In addition to the number given by the ministry, there are around 2,000 decommissioned nuclear warheads that are to be dismantled.

President Joe Biden's administration is trying to resume arms control talks with Russia.

More transparency in state nuclear weapons is "important for non-proliferation and disarmament efforts," said the State Department.

Biden extended New Start Agreement with Russia

Under Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, the United States had reduced its disarmament agreements with Russia as a whole. So they got out of the INF treaty on nuclear disarmament in the medium-range range. America also canceled the Open Skies Treaty on arms control from the air. In negotiations to extend the New Start Agreement, Trump unsuccessfully advocated the inclusion of China, which America and Russia extended shortly after Joe Biden took office. Otherwise it would have expired on February 5th. By signing, Washington and Moscow committed to reducing their nuclear warheads to a maximum of 1,550 each.

Russian and American diplomats held closed-door talks in Geneva last week to discuss a follow-up deal for New Start and conventional weapons.

An American representative called the talks “productive”, and both sides said that the mere fact that the talks were taking place was positive.

According to a January count by the Swedish Peace Research Institute in Stockholm, which also recorded decommissioned warheads, the United States had 5550 warheads, Russia 6255, China 350, Great Britain 225 and France 290. India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea together had around 460 nuclear warheads .