NATO to Better Integrate Conventional, Nuclear Power to Deter Russia - Carter

The United States is working with NATO to combine the alliance’s conventional and nuclear capabilities to counter Russia, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter side in a speech at the Minot Air Force Base in the state of North Dakota.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Carter claimed that Russia’s development of new nuclear weapons systems raises serious questions about Moscow’s commitment to strategic stability.

"We are refreshing NATO’s nuclear playbook to better integrate conventional and nuclear deterrence to ensure we plan and train like we fight and to deter Russia from thinking it can benefit from nuclear use in a conflict with NATO," Carter stated on Monday.

On Friday, Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vitaliy Churkin said he hoped the next president of the United States would be more committed to ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), already ratified by Moscow.

The CTBT was finalized in 1996 and has been signed by the United States and 182 other countries. It was ratified by 166 countries, but is yet to be ratified by the US Conrgess.