Thread by @ArmsControlWonk

Now what is this all about?

"And we are not deploying nuclear-armed,
land-based missiles outside of our national territory. Two other NPT nuclear weapon states cannot make each of these claims."

"Two other NPT nuclear weapons states" means Russia and China. (There are 5 NPT nuclear weapons states and he's clearly not talking about the US, UK or France.)

But neither Russia nor China is known to deploy "nuclear-armed land based missiles" outside of their territory.

Now, in the case of Russia, that may change as Russia has indicated it will provide Belarus with dual-capable aircraft and missiles using phrasing that implies nuclear-sharing of some sort.*
reuters.com/world/europe/r…

*The US also engages in nuclear-sharing with some NATO nations, although only using dual-capable aircraft. So, the "land based missiles" phrase is especially important in Scheinman's phrasing.

That leaves China. I am not aware of any credible reporting that China is "deploying nuclear-armed, land-based missiles outside of [its] national territory..."

It's not clear where China would deploy such systems. North Korea? Pakistan? Saudi Arabia?

I am very skeptical.

Some options in descending order of probability:
1. Very poor phrasing.
2. Word games involving deployments in disputed areas like Crimea/Aksai Chin.
3. Scheinman dropped a bombshell.
I think it's likely #1, but 🤷‍♂️. What do you think?

The argument for "poor phrasing" is that it's not uncommon for people to not know the difference between "each" (which he said) and "all" or "every" (which he may have meant).