Russian, Western Security Experts Urge Nuclear Powers to Review ‘Fail-Safes’: Letter

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A group of national security experts from the United States, Europe and Russia published a letter on Friday urging the world’s nuclear powers to conduct internal reviews of their nuclear fail-safes to reduce the risk of an inadvertent incident.

"The need for urgent action is clear: Each nation with nuclear arms has a responsibility to reduce the risk of nuclear blunder, and nations must work together to eliminate nuclear risks and threats," the letter said. "In parallel with such dialogue, internal fail-safe reviews could lead to proposals for bilateral and multilateral cooperative risk reduction measures… including steps to increase warning and decision times for leaders."

The letter was prepared by the Euro-Atlantic Security Leadership Group (EASLG) for delivery to "Presidents, Prime Ministers, Parliamentarians and Publics."

Signatories include Munich Security Conference Foundation Council President Wolfgang Ischinger, former Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Igor Ivanov and former US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.

In June 2021, the EASLG called on all nuclear-weapons states to commit to conduct internal reviews of their nuclear command-and-control systems, including "fail-safe" steps to safeguard against cyber threats and other unauthorized or accidental uses of nuclear weapons.

The United States has already initiated such a review, and the EASLG calls on other nuclear-weapons states to conduct their own internal fail-safe reviews, the letter said.

Moreover, the EASLG called for restored dialogue on issues between nuclear-weapons states regardless of current global circumstances, including bilateral strategic stability talks between the US and Russia, the letter said.

The ongoing conflict in Ukraine elevates the risk of nuclear warfare "dramatically," the letter added.