Pentagon: Russia reportedly supplying China with enriched uranium

Russian state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom is reportedly supplying highly enriched uranium to China for the use in fast breeder reactors, the U.S. Department of Defense said on Wednesday.

After being briefed on the issue by an U.S. official during a posture hearing at the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, U.S. assistant secretary of defence for space policy John Plumb said it was "very troubling to see Russia and China cooperating on this."

"They may have talking points around it, but there's no getting around the fact that breeder reactors are plutonium, and plutonium is for weapons. So I think the [U.S. Defense] Department is concerned. And of course, it matches our concerns about China's increased expansion of its nuclear forces as well, because you need more plutonium for more weapons," Plumb added.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began last year, which resulted in Russia being largely isolated from Western nations, Moscow has been pursuing closer ties with Beijing and is also seeking weapons supplies.

At a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in India last week, Russian top diplomat Sergei Lavrov affirmed that his country aims to comprehensively expand its cooperation with China.

Beijing has so far failed to condemn the Kremlin's invasion and the U.S. has warned Beijing against supplying Russia with weapons.

Plumb said that China was significantly expanding and diversifying its nuclear forces at a fast pace. Both Beijing and Moscow were focusing on nuclear weapons, space warfare and long-range strike to counter the U.S. and its partners, he added.

Russia recently suspended its involvement in the New START nuclear arms control treaty, the last remaining disarmament agreement of its kind with the U.S. which limits the nuclear arsenals of both countries to 800 delivery systems and 1,550 operational warheads each.

It also stipulates that Washington and Moscow may exchange information on their strategic nuclear arsenals and hold up to 18 on-site verification visits per year.