The leaders of the Republican Party in the US Congress have called on the administration of President Joe Biden to commit to funding the "American nuclear modernization" plan, and to abandon all consideration of changes in nuclear policy.

A Republican statement said President Biden was considering eliminating critical nuclear capabilities.

Republicans considered the Biden administration's approach completely far from the dangerous reality facing the United States, NATO and the rest of Washington's allies around the world.

They stressed that a weak stance by the Biden administration would not reduce the risks of nuclear use by Russia, China, and North Korea, but would undermine allies' confidence in US leadership and encourage adversaries to take more aggressive action.

The administration of President Joe Biden is conducting a review of missile defense policy, which will determine whether to modify the missile and nuclear defense programs that the administration inherited from its predecessor.

Last October, the United States revealed the size of its stockpile of nuclear warheads for the first time in 4 years.

After the blackout imposed by former President Donald Trump on these data, the State Department said that on September 30, 2020, the army possessed 3,750 activated or inactive nuclear warheads, 55 less than the previous year, and 72 more than the same day in 2017.

This number is the lowest since the US nuclear stockpile reached its peak at the height of the Cold War with Russia in 1967, when it amounted to 31,255 warheads.

The announcement of the numbers last Tuesday came as the administration of President Joe Biden is making efforts to restart arms control talks with Russia after they faltered under Trump.

Trump withdrawal

It is noteworthy that Trump withdrew his country from the Iranian nuclear agreement and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, and withdrew from another agreement, the New START treaty, last year before its expiration on the fifth of February.

This treaty provides for a maximum number of nuclear warheads that Washington and Moscow can keep, and withdrawal from them could have reversed the reduction of these warheads by both sides.

Trump said at the time that he wanted a new deal that included China, which has few warheads compared to the United States and Russia.

According to statistics published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the United States possesses 5,550 nuclear warheads, compared to 6,255 in Russia, 350 in China, 225 in Britain, and 290 in France.

The Stockholm Institute stated that India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea together possess about 460 nuclear warheads.