Integrated review: UK nuclear stockpile to increase

PA Media

The UK is set to reverse plans to reduce its stockpile of nuclear weapons by the middle of the decade, as part of a foreign policy overhaul.

The cap on the number of warheads will now increase to 260, having been due to drop to 180 under previous plans from 2010.

The UK will shift focus towards Indo-Pacific countries, described as the world's "growth engine".

And it pledges the UK will do more on the "systemic challenge" of China.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said relations with the country posed "difficult issues," including over industrial secrets and telecoms.

But he warned against adopting a "Cold-War mentality" towards China, amid internal pressure from Conservatives to take a harder line.

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The integrated review, which Boris Johnson will update MPs on shortly, has taken over a year and sets out the UK's foreign policy until 2030.

The document, which runs to over 100 pages, indentifies Russia as the "most acute threat" to UK security.

It says the decision to lift the overall cap on the UK's nuclear warhead stockpile is justified by the "evolving security environment" since 2010.

It also sets out an ambition to make the UK a "science and tech superpower" by the end of the decade.

A new counter-terrorism operations centre is also planned, intended to improve the speed of response to terrorist incidents.

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March 17, 2021 at 12:28AM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56413920