Biden warns Trump administration not to invest in nuclear buildup

Vice President Biden on Wednesday warned the incoming Trump administration not to invest money in “nuclear buildup” as he recalled relations with the former Soviet Union during the Cold War era.

Speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank in Washington, D.C., the vice president said placing money in nuclear weapons is reminiscent of the Cold War.

“If future budgets reverse the choices we’ve made and pour additional money into nuclear buildup, it harkens back to the Cold War,” he said. “It will do nothing to increase the day-to-day security of the United States or our allies.”

{mosads}Biden, who recalled his days serving in the Senate during the Reagan administration in the last years of the Cold War, said Russia has “moved to rely more heavily” on its nuclear arsenal.

“As the next administration navigates these difficult security talks, it’ll have to make decisions for American security that recognize budgetary constraints and require tradeoffs,” Biden said.

Biden’s comments come just nine days before President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence take the Oath of Office on Jan. 20.

Trump said in December that the United States needed to “strengthen and expand” its nuclear arsenal.

“The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Biden, in his address, said that investing in the nuclear buildup will take resources away from areas like cybersecurity and space. 

“It risks placing the theoretical power of a weapon we hope to god never to use again above the tools the military uses each and every day,” he said.