On 1 March, the Russian President Vladimir Putin, made headlines by boasting that the Russian Federation’s new ‘invincible’ nuclear weapons can breach NATO’s missile defences in a speech. In particular, Putin bigged up Russia’s new nuclear cruise missiles, which are currently being tested.

On the order of President Trump, the US Department of Defense is currently concluding a sweeping review of the United States’ nuclear policy – a “nuclear posture review” ­– expected to be released at the end of this month. But already now, the text has leaked and shows that the Trump administration will loosen constraints on the use of nuclear weapons and develop more “usable” nuclear warheads.

The United States warned other NATO members that efforts to negotiate a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons or to delegitimise nuclear deterrence "are fundamentally at odds with NATO's basic policies on deterrence".

This report, based on freedom of information research, describes Australia's obstructive role at the recently concluded UN working group on nuclear disarmament in Geneva, which recommended negotiations on a treaty banning nuclear weapons in 2017. Australia argues that US nuclear weapons are vital for its security, and thus it opposes a ban.