Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warns ‘it looks as if the world is preparing for war’
FORMER Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev claims the new nuclear arms race between Russia and America makes it look like "the world is preparing for war".
The ex world leader also fears "the nuclear threat once again seems real" and has called on Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to take steps to reduce the planet's nuke arsenal.
"Politicians and military leaders sound increasingly belligerent and defence doctrines more dangerous. It all looks as if ," he wrote in magazine.
"The nuclear threat once again seems real.
"Relations between the great powers have been going from bad to worse for several years now. The advocates for arms build-up and the military-industrial complex are rubbing their hands.
In December, Trump reportedly vowed to outmatch Russia at every pass hours after Putin boasted his nukes made him “stronger than any aggressor”.
The then President-elect said he was fine with an “arms race” if it put the US in a stronger position than its foreign opponents.
Gorbachev said the US and Russian presidents should now champion a resolution at the UN Security Council to guard against a nuclear conflict.
"I think the initiative to adopt such a resolution should come from Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin – the presidents of two nations that hold over 90% of the world’s nuclear arsenals and therefore bear a special responsibility," he wrote.
During his presidential campaign, Mr Trump also said he was open to more countries, such as Japan and Saudi Arabia, developing nuclear weapons.
In today's interview, Gorbachev harkened back to the 1980s and his work with the US to decommission and destroy 80 percent of nuclear weapons amassed during the Cold War.
"In November 1985, at the first summit in Geneva, the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States declared: Nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought," Gorbachev wrote.
"Our two nations will not seek military superiority. This statement was met with a sigh of relief worldwide."
“Money is easily found for sophisticated weapons whose destructive power is comparable to that of the weapons of mass destruction; for submarines whose single salvo is capable of devastating half a continent; for missile defence systems that undermine strategic stability,” he wrote.
He said his proposed UN Security Council resolution should state "nuclear war is unacceptable and must never be fought".
Gorbachev's dire warning came a day after the Doomsday Clock, which marks the current threat of global annihilation, moved 30 seconds closer to midnight.
Scientists warned of "accidental, unauthorised, or inadvertent nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia", saying that the two countries had 800 warheads on high alert, ready to launch.