G-7 pushes back against aggressive nuclear moves by Russia and China

The Group of Seven rich democracies called out Russia's "irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and behavior" and China's "rapid expansion of its nuclear arsenal" as threats to global peace and stability, while also deploring North Korea's "reckless" nuclear and ballistic missile testing program.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement in late March that Russia will deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus – and has already begun training Belarusian air force crews in how to use them – adds to the danger of a serious escalation in the fighting in neighboring Ukraine.

"We condemn Russia's announced intent to station nuclear weapons in Belarus as a further demonstration of irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and behavior that we have seen from Russia in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine," the G-7 nonproliferation directors group said on Monday.

"Russia’s irresponsible nuclear rhetoric is unacceptable," they said. "Any use of chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons would be met with severe consequences."

The G-7 describes itself as an informal forum among the leading industrial nations and democracies of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, plus the European Union. It was created out of a “World Economic Summit” initiated in 1975 by former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and then-German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

China-U.S. talks urged

China’s increasing threats to Taiwan pose another challenge to the post-World War II order represented by the G-7 and, more broadly, the international community of organizations such as the United Nations and its 15-nation Security Council, which affords five permanent, veto-wielding seats to Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

China's recent moves to lay claim to ever greater portions of the South China Sea and its military exercises around Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, have caused alarm in Western capitals that Beijing might follow Moscow's lead on Ukraine.

The G-7 nonproliferation directors group emphasized its concern about China's "rapid expansion of its nuclear arsenal and development of increasingly sophisticated delivery systems without transparency."

They also urged China to ease rising tensions with the United States by taking action to "engage promptly in strategic risk reduction discussions with the U.S. and to promote stability through greater transparency of the PRC’s nuclear weapon policies, plans, and capabilities."

Along with China's growing assertiveness, North Korea’s missile tests around the Sea of Japan, part of its weapons of mass destructions program, have caused alarm for Japan, which holds the G-7's rotating presidency this year and will host a G-7 summit next month in Hiroshima, the first city ever to be destroyed by an atomic bomb.

North Korea has test-fired around 100 missiles, both short- and long-range, that could pose threats to Japan, South Korea and the United States. The G-7 said it "strongly condemns" North Korea's continual push for "development of its nuclear, other WMD, and missile programs, including multiple ballistic missile launches over the past year, which have occurred with unprecedented frequency and in an unprecedented manner."