"This is ​a new moment, ⁠a new reality - we are ready for it," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees arms control issues, told Russian news agencies during a visit to Beijing for "strategic stability consultations". New START, which caps the number of deployed strategic warheads at 1,550, was signed in 2010.

With New START expiring and China rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal, a three-way arms race looms, raising fresh risks of instability, global nuclear danger

Several nations boast nuclear arsenals, although nearly 90% of all nukes belong to a minority. Here's who holds the lion's share of nuclear weapons.

Yet January 14th marked the longest period humankind has gone without one or another part of the whole exploding one of these deadly weapons, stretching back to the last North Korean test in September, 2017. All other nuclear armed states conducted their last nuclear tests between 1990 and 1998 when Pakistan ceased its nuclear testing.

The government has rejected calls to explore a second sovereign method of delivering UK nuclear weapons, arguing that the existing submarine-based system remains the most credible option as nuclear risks increase.