Time.news – Between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin the world is involved. On the stage of Geneva there is a large golden globe that divides the leaders of the two nuclear powers. The format of the rounds is established, first in a restricted key only with foreign ministers (and interpreters), then enlarged, at Villa La Grange, where the first Geneva convention was signed in 1864 and from where Pope Paul VI made an appeal to the nuclear powers to be converted into “generous architects of peace”. Even today, what matters is radioactive, because on the table, or rather a table, with white flowers in the center, which divides the two leaders, there are atomic warheads and missiles.
There has been a lot of talk about hackers, the exchange of spies, interference, friendships and enmities but Joe and Vladimir are two old foxes of international relations, they know each other, they weigh each other with their eyes, they fear each other and, after all, despite being on opposite shores (democracy and autocracy, Atlantic and Eurasia) in the end respect each other.
Because the summit stems from a state of necessity (“relations are at an all-time low”, underlines NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Brussels summit) but it is Biden himself who pays homage to Putin: “He is a worthy opponent”. In the White House they know well that without Russia there cannot be a new post-pandemic world order and the Kremlin knows equally well that America cannot be ignored.
Putin and Biden at the negotiating table
Some would say that it is the same old story of the confrontation between the torch of freedom and the Russian bear but in a world that is emerging from the coronavirus emergency, the scenario must be updated. The first point is nuclear warheads, non-proliferation treaties that have expired or are to be renewed. According to the latest data updated 48 hours ago by Sipri (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) in Stockholm, the United States and Russia have 90% of the global nuclear forces.
According to SIPRI, “both attach growing importance to nuclear power in their national security strategy”. In 2021, the United States boasts 5,550 nuclear warheads compared to Russia’s 6,255. Of these, America has 1,800 deployed (already placed in missiles or located in military bases with operational forces), while Russia has 1,625.
The other warheads are used as a strategic reserve, or have been withdrawn pending decommissioning. This is the framework on which the two powers confront each other. That is why it is crucial for Biden and Putin to find an agreement. Both won’t give up their arsenals, but a limitation and curtailment program is needed to avoid an out-of-control run.
In this context in Geneva the two presidents could find common ground on the Iranian dossier: Biden aims to cancel the season of hard control opened by Donald Trump (exited from the JCPOA), Putin is one of the heads of state capable of giving the cards with the regime of the ayatollahs of Tehran. In addition, the nuclear one is a club that other countries belong to.
First of all, China, which has an ongoing atomic weapon modernization and expansion program (Beijing has 350 warheads) and Xi Jinping in a high-voltage environment (see Taiwan and China Sea) will certainly use the Bomb as weapon of diplomatic pressure.
In the Indian subcontinent we must not forget the persistent tension between India and Pakistan, two other nuclear powers that according to the SIPRI numbers have respectively 156 and 165 warheads available. In the Middle East on the chessboard we cannot forget Israel’s 90 newspapers which, even with the new government and the end of Bibi Netanyahu’s reign, nonetheless reiterated its hostility to an Iranian nuclear agreement and affirmed its autonomy of intervention. against Tehran in the case of an escalation in the uranium enrichment process for military purposes. Finally, the great dilemma: the arsenal of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean atomic bomb of which no one knows for sure the numbers, but the SIPRI estimates it possible that the warheads are between 40 and 50.
The White House and the Kremlin face this picture. The total number of operational nuclear warheads has grown this year to 3,825 compared to 3,720 last year. They have grown, despite the treaties and the statements of the leaders foresee their reduction. Most of these newspapers, about two thousand, are in an operational ‘alert’ state and are under the command of the generals of Russia and the United States. In Geneva Biden smiles and has his legs crossed, Putin is relaxed, with his hands on his knees, but on their shoulders there is that globe that divides them, the destinies of the world.
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