US faces greatest threat from spread of nukes: Biden

"The spread of nuclear weapons is the greatest threat facing our country," Biden said in a speech on "The Future of US Nuclear Deterrence" at the National Defence University.
"We are working both to stop their proliferation and eventually to eliminate them. We will do everything necessary to maintain our arsenal," he said on Thursday.

Noting that the US will work to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, he said Obama administration will do everything to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons to terrorists and states that donot possess them yet.

"We must not underestimate how proliferation to a state could be destabilising in an entire region, regions critical to us, and may very well prompt neighbours in that region to feel that they have to garner nuclear weapons themselves," he said.

"We've long relied upon nuclear weapons to deter potential adversaries. We're developing non-nuclear ways to accomplish the same objectives," Biden said.
The recently released Quadrennial Defence Review and the Ballistic Missile Defence Review presents a plan to further strengthen our pre-eminent conventional forces, he said.

"Capabilities like an adaptive missile defence shield, conventional warheads with worldwide reach, will enable us to reduce the role of nuclear weapons," Biden said.
Referring to the START treaty negotiations with Russia, Biden said a new START treaty will promote strategic stability and bolster global effort to prevent proliferation by showing that the world's leading nuclear powers are committed to reducing their arsenal.

"We have tightened sanctions on North Korea's proliferation activities. We're working with our international partners to ensure that Iran also faces real consequences for failing to meet its obligations," he said.

In April, Biden said the US President is going to host a national security summit to advance his goals of securing all vulnerable nuclear material within four years.
"In May, we will participate in a Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. We are rallying support for stronger measures to strengthen inspection and punish cheaters," he said.

The treaty had a basic bargain that nuclear powers will pursue disarmament and non-nuclear states will not acquire such weapons while gaining access to civilian nuclear technology, he said.

Noting that Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is as important as ever Biden said it was designed in order to keep emerging nuclear states from perfecting their arsenal as well as those who were not nuclear states from being able to even get there, he said.