The United States revealed its plans to help China and India after talks about how to stop Russia’s nuclear space weapon.
During a conference in Munich, Germany, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Chinese and Indian counterparts about the possibility of a nuclear weapon orbiting in space that is targeting U.S. satellites.
According to the New York Times, the detonation of the nuclear weapon would harm Chinese and Indian satellites, resulting in “disconnection” and global communications failure.
The deployment of nuclear weapons would destroy emergency services to cell phones and the regulation of generators and petrol pumps to stop working. Debris from the nuclear explosion would also make its way into Earth’s orbit, making navigation nearly impossible for things such as Starlink satellites used for Internet communications and spy satellites.
Blinken said on Saturday that Russia’s potential use of a nuclear weapon in space poses a significant national security threat.
The NYT stressed that the issue at hand is a grave concern for the U.S., and the countries must pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin not to deploy nuclear weapons.
Putting a nuclear weapon in space is in violation of an over 50-year treaty that has so far stopped the proliferation of weapons into the region, according to the NYT. Besides telecommunications concerns, Blinken also warned that debris from the possible nuclear explosions would pose a threat to low-earth orbit navigation, putting further satellite operations at risk. Blinken spoke with the two officials, believing that Russia would be more likely to listen to them than the U.S. due to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s disdain for the country, according to the NYT. Russia has been conducting military satellite launches since early 2022, when the invasion of Ukraine first began, via the Daily Caller.
The Biden Administration fears that if hit too hard with sanctions or military opposition to his war with Ukraine, Putin will deploy the nuclear weapon.