NATO is discussing the deployment of more nuclear weapons in response to the rising threat from Russia and China - according to Stoltenberg, the Alliance must demonstrate its nuclear arsenal to the world.

The NATO Secretary General said this in an interview with The Telegraph.

According to him, NATO members have been actively negotiating on taking missiles out of storage and placing them on standby, emphasizing the importance of transparency as a means of deterrence.

"I won’t go into operational details about how many nuclear warheads should be operational and which should be stored, but we need to consult on these issues. That’s exactly what we’re doing," he explained.

Stoltenberg added that nuclear transparency should be a cornerstone of NATO's nuclear strategy to prepare the Alliance for what he called a more dangerous world.

It's worth noting that 10 years ago, when the NATO Secretary General took office, nuclear exercises were a complete secret. Now he is openly talking about the contribution of 32 allies to deterrence.

"Transparency helps to communicate the direct message that we, of course, are a nuclear alliance. Nato’s aim is, of course, a world without nuclear weapons, but as long as nuclear weapons exist, we will remain a nuclear alliance, because a world where Russia, China and North Korea have nuclear weapons, and Nato does not, is a more dangerous world," Stoltenberg said.

He warned that China, in particular, is investing heavily in modern weapons, including its nuclear arsenal, which he said could grow to 1,000 warheads by 2030.

"And that means that in a not-very-distant future," he said, “Nato may face something that it has never faced before, and that is two nuclear-powered potential adversaries – China and Russia. Of course, this has consequences," the Alliance Secretary General said.

Earlier, we wrote that Russia could launch a nuclear strike in space.